Destined Ties
by YumeNoAnata
Summary: Mai is determined to live a perfectly ordinary life after an incident when she was younger. One day her determination is ruined when she finds out that she had always been arranged to marry someone called Kazuya Shibuya. NaruxMai
1. Chapter 1

**Marriage not dating:**

 **Chapter 1:**

Nothing exciting ever happened to Mai Taniyama. She had worked hard in school, had never been top of the class, hadn't gone to university and was instead working as an office lady at a nondescript company. She was just average.

Her parents had died when she was young and she had ended up needing to work hard to earn money from an early age so she had missed out on a lot of experiences.

She was 23 now and her life hadn't changed since she was 18. She was still working at the same company, her friends were still the same and she lived in the same apartment she had lived in since starting high school.

On a sunny day in spring, an event occurred that would change her life.

The weather was nice that day and the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom nicely. Mai was thinking of suggesting a picnic in the park with her friends Michiru and Keiko whilst the blossoms were in half bloom because there would be less competition for spaces. It was what they did every year.

She was about to turn into the train station when someone grabbed her shoulder. Mai looked over to shoulder to see a tall man with a long black finger covering one eye standing behind her. He looked quite threatening.

"Are you Mai Taniyama?" he questioned.

Was he yakuza? Mai reminded herself that she had no debts and none of her friends were likely to either.

"What if I am?" she asked cautiously.

"You need to come with me."

That did sound like a threat. She pulled off the man's hand and rushed off to catch her train. She was a normal person. Normal people didn't get accosted by random men at the train station. He must have wanted another Mai Taniyama.

She looked nervously around her once she was on the train. There was no sign of the black haired man and she breathed a sigh of relief. The rest of her day progressed as normal after that. She typed up some reports, photocopied documents, caught up with the office gossip on her break and had a bento from the nearby convenience store for lunch.

Mai had almost convinced herself that the black haired man had mistaken her for another Mai Taniyama and nothing strange would happen again.

That was until she left work at the usual time and found another black haired man hanging around outside. She assured herself it was just paranoia and walked straight past him whilst avoiding eye contact.

An arctically pale hand landed on her arm and she gulped. This dark haired man had to be in cahoots with the other one.

She turned round and took a good look at him so she would recognise him again. He was younger than the other man and much better looking. His skin was very pale and he had blue eyes which was different to see.

"I think you've mistaken me for another person," she said hesitantly.

He smiled charmingly and Mai almost forgot the situation she was in.

"You are Mai Taniyama," he said calmly. "I know I am right."

Mai took a look around her. There were lots of people around. If he started threatening her she could get other people to help.

"What do you want?"

His eyes were unreadable, but his tone was very serious.

"I don't want anything from you really. All I want to do is not to listen to anything a certain person tells you. He is tall with a fringe over one eye-"

Mai interrupted him. "I saw him this morning!"

The look on his face was certainly one of surprise and he winced.

"Lin got to you before me then," he sighed. "That man's name is Koujo Lin. He won't do anything to hurt you. He will just want you to listen to him. You can just walk off and he won't do anything."

This was a lot for Mai to take in. First there was a strange man wanting her to come with him, now there was another man telling her not to listen to the first man. How was she supposed to know which one to listen to?

"What does he want to tell me?"

The man's jawline tightened.

"You don't need to know. It's in your own interest to not listen."

"What's your name?" She asked. If she knew the first man was called Lin she should also know this man's name.

"My name is Kazuya Shibuya."

The name didn't mean anything to Mai, but it was good to know his name since he knew hers.

"If you feel threatened by Lin, contact me and I will get rid of him for you," he offered suddenly.

Mai was still confused by everything, but she liked the offer. She didn't want to be bothered anymore so she accepted.

Kazuya gave her his number and she said that she would contact him if anything did happen. They parted ways there and Mai continued on her way back home, feeling reassured that she would be safe should anything out of the ordinary happen again. Everything was going to be normal again. The only thing abnormal was that she had a phone number belonging to a rather good looking man.

* * *

It didn't take long for her routine to be disturbed again. The mysterious man named Lin was waiting outside her apartment block rather than the train station. She could see him from her position in the lobby. There was no way she could walk out the front door without him seeing her.

She took out her phone. Kazuya had said he would get rid of the man for her. She wanted him gone, but at the same time she wanted to know how Lin knew her name, where she lived and what he wanted to tell her. She was also curious to know how Kazuya knew her name.

She paused. How was Kazuya going to get rid of Lin for her? It sounded like they knew each other or were after the same thing. Who was she supposed to trust?

After a moment of consideration and using her instincts, Mai made her decision. She didn't feel like either of them were people that were going to harm her.

She dialled Kazuya's number and waited for an answer. Surprisingly he picked up after one ring. Perhaps he had been waiting for her to call.

"Is Lin there?" He asked curtly.

"Yes, I was looking out my window just now and he's right outside the entrance and I need to get to work," she explained with the addition of a deliberate lie.

"I understand. I will get remove him from your vicinity. Don't look out of the window again until I call you back," he said and ended the call.

As soon as he did Mai rushed outside to where Lin was waiting. He looked surprised at seeing her run over to him.

"Lin-san, what did you want to tell me yesterday?" She demanded. "Please tell me quickly."

He looked strangely at her and she realised that he didn't know how she had found out his name.

"Taniyama-san, has Noll met you?"

That name was completely lost on her. She couldn't manage to pronounce it right.

"I haven't met anyone called No… with that name," she corrected herself. "Can you tell me what you were going to tell me?"

Lin sighed. She couldn't work out why. "It it isn't really something I wanted to tell you on a public street, but if you want to know right now. I might as well."

* * *

The man known to Mai as Kazuya Shibuya was extremely annoyed with his bodyguard. Why was he taking matters into his own hands and talking to Mai Taniyama? In doing that Lin was being a nuisance to both of them.

Naru was insulting Lin silently as he got into his car to drive to Mai's address. The girl couldn't be the sharpest person if she wasn't questioning how he was going to get Lin away from her. That was why he had told her to stay away from the window.

When he arrived outside the apartment block his heart sank. Mai hadn't been telling the whole truth. She was standing outside talking to Lin instead of being out of sight in her apartment.

He might be too late.

He stormed out of his car and over to them. He had to know what Lin had told her so far. Fortunately neither had spotted him yet.

"The Taniyama family-" Lin broke off as he saw him approaching.

"Shibuya-san, you got here fast," Mai observed, sounding very suspicious. "I didn't even tell you the address."

She had got him there. He wasn't bothered about that at the moment. He just wanted to ensure Lin never told her about the arranged marriage.

"You can go to work now, Taniyama-san," he smiled gently. "Lin will never bother you again."

She looked at him sharply and he knew that she was not someone that was disarmed by his smiles. Mistakenly he had assumed from her blushing the previous day that she was susceptible.

"I think that I need to talk to both of you together to get the full story," she announced. "How do you know each other?"

Lin was the first one to speak.

"I am a bodyguard hired by his parents. Looking after you comes under that duty."

Naru glared at him. Lin was very close to spilling the beans with that line.

"Why?" Mai was understandably confused.

Much to Naru's distaste the omnouji managed to tell her before Naru could threaten him.

"Because you are his fiancée."

* * *

 **A/N: This probably sounds like it is lacking in substance but there is more to it than it seems. I swear I am not usually this cliche.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 2** :

Mai's mouth hung open in shock. She hadn't been sure what to expect from Lin, but to hear that was a surprise. She couldn't have a fiancée that she didn't know about.. She was a normal office lady with no boyfriend or interest in romance. Her last boyfriend had been the school president Yasuhara five years ago.

"…Are you sure that you have the right Mai Taniyama? I don't have a fiancé," she laughed nervously.

The two men looked at her. Kazuya looked at her scornfully whilst Lin looked sympathetic.

"You are the right person," Kazuya paused. "I would like to stress that I have no interest in marrying you."

Mai scowled. He was good looking but his personality was nowhere as good as his face.

"Taniyama-san, would you like to go somewhere else private to discuss this?" Lin offered gently. "There is a lot to explain."

The brunette checked her watch. If she didn't leave within two minutes she really was going to be late for work.

"I need to get going now. You can meet me outside when I am done. I know you both know where I work."

She sprinted off leaving Kazuya and Lin staring after her.

"She is not what I was expecting," Lin said eventually. "She is surprisingly assertive."

Naru nodded. "She tricked me. She has good instincts," he said. "Like an animal."

That line made Lin consider what a terrible husband Naru would make for anyone. Granted Taniyama did seem like she could handle him well, but Noll was a very difficult person to warm to.

"Are you going to be with me when I explain everything?" Lin asked.

"I'd better in case you give her completely the wrong idea about everything," Naru said warningly.

* * *

The word 'fiancé' was rattling around in Mai's head all day at work. Apparently she had a fiancé. She was so distracted all day that she photocopied too many documents and spilled water down herself at lunchtime.

She was glad when the end of work finally arrived. Mai was also nervous about meeting the pair again. She assured herself that today she would be able to get to the bottom of the situation. Her life could go back to normal.

As promised the pair were waiting outside for her. She could feel that she was drawing stares from her co-workers. Both were quite eye catching in different ways. Naru was good looking but he was scowling and looked like he was emulating movie bad boys. Lin was much taller and looked mysterious with one eye covered.

Naru's cold stare transferred to her when he saw her approach him.

"Where should we go?" He asked tonelessly. "We aren't discussing anything out here."

"There's a nice little café around the corner. It's never very busy so it's possible to have a private conversation," Mai said.

It felt strange leading two men into a cutesy café. Both looked completely out of their element. Mai chose the table at the back and ordered tea for them.

Once they had been served tea and cake Mai cut to the chase.

"How can I be Kazuya-san's fiancée if I have never heard of him before?"

Lin nodded. "I should start by explaining that Kazuya has dual citizenship and his English name is Oliver Davis."

Surprisingly that name was very familiar to Mai from her past. The monk she had known in high school had been a fan.

"Do you mean the scientist with PK?"

She felt that Lin and Naru was staring her down and she blushed under their gaze.

"I've heard of him before through an acquaintance. I got the impression that he was an old man though."

"People always assume that," she heard Kazuya mutter.

Lin still looked surprised. "…It does make things easier to explain then. Noll's Japanese family are gifted and they go back quite far. However he doesn't actually have any Japanese relations."

Mai understood what Lin meant due to her own situation.

"I have the same problem," she sighed.

Naru looked at her understandingly and she found that she felt more of a connection with him.

"Fortunately Noll was adopted by an English couple, hence his English name. The problem with his Japanese family is that all members of the family do not survive past their 25th birthday."

Distant memories of her mystery solving in her high school days enabled her to deduce the issue easily.

"Is there a curse on the family then?"

Again both of them looked at her in surprise.

"It is fortunate that you are quick on the uptake," Naru complimented her unexpectedly.

"Yes, there is a curse," Lin confirmed. "The curse has been detailed in journals left behind by family members. The ages they all died at have varied, but it is clear that none of them survived past 25. To keep the family going they all had to marry fairly young so they would see their children grow up for a few years."

That sounded like a horrible situation to be in. To know that you were going to die before 25 and could die at any time.

"How have they died?" She asked.

"Mysterious accidents," Kazuya contributed for the first time. "My parents died in a car crash."

Mai understood the family problem well. The part that she didn't understand was how she was Naru's fiancée.

"Where do I come into this?"

"One of Noll's ancestors died later on in life from seemingly natural causes. He was married to someone related to you, Taniyama-san," Lin informed her. "He assumed that the curse had ended. Unfortunately his own children died young so it was evident that he had only passed on the curse. He believed that it was because of who he was married to."

"What does it have to do with my family," Mai paused. She had a feeling that she knew where the conversation was heading and her palms began to sweat. She was normal.

"His wife was able to dream of the future and was able to warn him when incidents would occur. That was how he avoided death. She was unable to predict that accident their children were in though."

Naru glanced at her suspiciously. She must not look right to him.

"Taniyama-san, are you all right? You don't look quite well," he observed.

"I'm fine," she assured him, trying her best to sound normal and not panicked. "How can you assume that I would be able to do the same thing for Kazuya-san simply because my ancestor did?"

Lin produced a laptop from the bag he had been carrying and opened it on the table.

"We did some research into the wife's family and noticed that it was only the females that had the ability and that it skipped generations. You can read our research if you want to. It is interesting."

"I'm not particularly interested in that sort of thing," Mai said.

Naru was the one to move in for the kill.

"According to our calculations, you should be the next female in the family to have the trait. You can dream of the future, can't you?"

Mai fought the urge to run away and tried to counteract.

"If I have dreams I can't remember them," she answered truthfully. "Therefore I cannot be any help to you."

Naru's eyes looked over her probingly. She was telling the truth about that part so he should leave her alone. He wasn't fooled.

"I believe that you were telling the truth just now. You left out a lot of information though. We did research into you before Lin jumped the gun by approaching you. We know that you have the ability."

How could they know? Her confusion must have shown on her face because Naru supplied the answer.

"It was unexpectedly easy. We found out your name from tracing the family to modern day. Lin mentioned your name to someone Japanese that we met at a special conference and it turned out that she had known you in high school."

Mai knew who that had to be. Of course she couldn't have expect Masako Hara to keep her secret quiet she thought bitterly.

"Before you get angry, we tricked Hara-san into admitting that you could dream of the future. She did not tell us anything else," Kazuya added..

That was slightly gratifying, but she was still annoyed about their snooping into her life. She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking again.

"I still do not know how I am arranged to marry you."

Lin cleared his throat and took over again. "There was a promise made between both of your families that the next child to be born in your family with the relevant ability would be betrothed to the living unmarried child of Noll's family. There is a document that details it and is proof if you do not believe me. This refers to the two of you. Therefore you two have an arranged marriage that was arranged before you two were even born."

It was a lot to take in. She had been arranged to be married to Kazuya before she had even born. It was unnerving. She looked over at Kazuya who was staring down at his teacup.

Now she understood why she had never heard of it before. Her parents had died before her abilities had manifested. That meant that they had never believed that she was the one that was promised to the Shibuya family. This did bring up another point though.

"Why have you only just approached me now?" She asked.

Lin was silent for a moment which Mai found suspicious. She couldn't be sure how old Kazuya was, but he did have to be around her age. He couldn't have much longer before his 25th birthday then.

"Due to Noll's adoption by an English couple and being raised in England, we never knew about the curse. It only became known when certain incidents occurred. This is why we have only recently discovered your arranged marriage."

"Now that you have found me, what happens now?" Mai questioned.

"I refuse to marry her," Kazuya cut in brusquely.


	3. Chapter 3

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 3:**

Mai felt slightly hurt that Kazuya had very coldly rejected her. Then she thought about it objectively. Neither of them knew each other very well and the marriage had been arranged a number of years ago. In all honesty she didn't really want to marry him either.

"Noll…" Lin said warningly.

Kazuya's eyes flashed dangerously. "I am not marrying someone just because my ancestors want me to."

"If it keeps you alive, what is wrong about it?" Lin asked. "I am supposed to protect you. This comes under it."

Kazuya turned to Mai and gazed at her searchingly.

"If I have interpreted correctly, you can see dreams of the future, but you choose not to for a certain reason. Is it scary?"

Memories of high school flashed through her mind. Memories that she did not want to remember.

"I don't like those dreams. It is scary to know the future. The consequences of trying to prevent the future were too difficult for me when I was younger," she explained slowly.

He nodded at her understandingly.

"Lin, it would not be fair to put Taniyama-san through emotional stress and we do not know each other well. Just give up on the arranged marriage and leave her alone," Kazuya requested. "We can continue looking through the family records for other methods."

The older man did not look like he wanted to agree with him, but he had to. He couldn't force them to marry.

"Very well. Taniyama-san, I will leave you my number in case you ever need help. We are intending on staying in Japan for a while. I also will not bother you again," Lin told her kindly.

The three of them stood up to leave. Kazuya handed Mai her coat.

"Taniyama-san, I hope that you will get to live that normal life that you wanted," he said.

Mai started in surprise. He had read her personality quite well. Then she remember his PK and psychometry, he had probably felt the same way at some point. There was also the curse on his family.

"Thank you, Shibuya-san," she said and bowed her head. "Lin-san, thank you for explaining everything to me."

They split up outside the café and Mai walked off with her head in a daze. A lot had happened in the past hour. She found that she had always been arranged to marry a famous English scientist and then she had lost that fiancé.

Her normal life was back in her grasp. She smiled at the thought.

* * *

That evening before bed, Mai poured herself a glass of water and took out her sleeping pills. To stop all the dreams she was on sleeping pills. Thanks to them she had been able to live an ordinary life without knowing that was going to happen in the future.

She hesitated over today's designated dose. Kazuya was in a situation where he was going to die unnaturally in the next few years. She could prevent that by dreaming.

Mai sighed. It was quite a dilemma.

She weighed up her decision. She didn't have work the next day so if she didn't get any sleep, she would be fine.

So Mai didn't take her sleeping pills that night. She had forgotten what if felt like to go to sleep naturally so she lay in her bed uncomfortably staring at the ceiling. After a while she felt herself slip into a dream.

It was a very vivid dream. She was standing on a street in Tokyo. The advertisement on the electronic billboard on the building across from her was showing the release date of a movie she had been wanting to see. The release date was tomorrow's date.

She looked around more and recognised her surroundings. She was in Shibuya on one of the busier streets in the morning. Mai turned around and saw someone she knew walking in her direction.

It was Kazuya. He was dressed in black again and was walking at an efficient pace.

He stopped to wait at the traffic crossing and Mai moved to stand near him. He strode across the crossing once the lights has changed and never saw the car coming to hit him.

Mai screamed as his body was thrown in the air and fought her way out of the dream. She woke up with her face sweating and her hair askew. She hated the feeling of panic and wanting to escape.

Kazuya was going to get hit by a car tomorrow. She didn't know if it was a lethal hit, but she didn't want him to be in a car accident in any case.

Her hand reached out to pick up her phone. Her dreams had occasionally been more open to interpretation, however this one had shown her a date and a definite incident.

She dialled Kazuya's number and hoped that he would not get annoyed with her late night call. It was just before midnight.

He picked up and sounded very awake.

"What is it Taniyama-san?" He asked.

"Are you going to be in Shibuya tomorrow morning?"

There was a momentary silence before he answered.

"Yes, there was somewhere I wanted to go," he paused. "By any chance, did you have a dream?"

"…I didn't take my sleeping pills so I had a dream. You were hit by a car in Shibuya," Mai answered hesitantly.

"I see."

He was silent again for a minute as if he was thinking deeply about something.

"Taniyama-san, would you like to meet in the afternoon tomorrow? I think we still have things to discuss," he said.

"Are you still intending on going to Shibuya in the morning?" She asked fearfully.

"Because I trust you, I will postpone that visit," he said. "I appreciate that you had a dream to keep me safe."

* * *

Mai looked around for Kazuya. They had arranged a meeting, thankfully not in Shibuya. She was waiting outside Ueno park and was enjoying the feeling of the wind and the cherry blossoms around her when someone tapped her.

She turned to see Kazuya dressed in black again with his face grim.

"I checked the news just before I left. There was a car accident in Shibuya today," he informed her and showed her the article on his phone.

"That does look like the location in my dream," Mai confirmed.

"It was fortunate that no one was hurt seriously in it. It was also fortunate that you warned me against going there," he said. "Thank you."

It would be a lie to say that Mai was surprised by her dream being correct. She was used to them being accurate when they were that vivid. That was what had made in harder when she was younger, knowing exactly what was going to happen.

"I am just glad that you managed to avoid being harmed," was her reply.

"I have a proposition for you," Kazuya said and led her inside the park. "I have been meaning to come here. So far we spent all of our time in Japan investigating."

Mai looked up at the half bloomed cherry blossoms and sighed. There was nothing more relaxing that looking at cherry blossoms trees. Kazuya put a stop to that.

"Did you know there is a Japanese tale claiming that the pink colour comes from blood?" he asked.

The brunette scowled at him. She had been enjoying herself until he had said that.

"I do now. I am not going to look at a cherry blossom tree the same way again," she complained.

Kazuya smirked. "You can't like them that much if you were so easily put off. Have you ever had a picnic underneath one."

"I have. Not at peak time though. It's packed when they are in full bloom here. Do you want to try it?"

Kazuya looked wistfully at the blossoms. "It would be a new experience. As you can guess, I have not experienced much in Japan. You can come with me. Lin doesn't talk much so it wouldn't be that fun."

Mai was surprised by the invitation. He hadn't seemed to want much to do with her yesterday. No, he just didn't want to marry you, she corrected herself. She struck by how lonely he sounded.

"I promise to come here with you. Is that what you invited me out to talk about?" She asked curiously.

Kazuya shook his head. "No. It just came to mind. Being in Japan with only Lin for company is…lonely. Since I might die soon I want to experience some traditional things."

It sounded to Mai like he was missing being in his home country a lot and his foster parents. She was able to emphasise well with him.

"Why did you ask me to meet with you then?"

The wistful look disappeared from his eyes and he immediately became more businesslike.

"Taniyama-san, I have a proposition for you."

Mai was intrigued. If he had taken her to Ueno park to discuss it, his proposition had to be important.

"I have no desire to simply survive the curse. I want to destroy the curse," he stated. "To do that, I will need your help. Are you willing to help me?"

* * *

 **A/N: the update is today because I am travelling back to university tomorrow.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 4:**

The offer was surprising considering his attitude from the day before. The only abilities she had that could help him were her dreams and she was not sure that she was prepared to repeat that pain of her younger days.

"How can I help you destroy the curse?" she asked tentatively.

Kazuya steered her away from all the groups of tourists and towards a bench. Mai sat down doubtfully. If she needed to be seated for him to tell her then it was something major.

"Unfortunately I am going to need you to have dreams," he sighed. "But that is only small part. I noticed yesterday that you seem to have some experience in investigating curses. If we combine all of our skills together, destroying the curse is possible."

The mention that he needed her investigation skills was slightly mollifying to her. She was still not happy with the request. She felt that she needed clarify her feelings on the subject to him.

"Kazuya-san, I am on sleeping pills because I hate having dreams. I only had one last night because I was in doubt and because I don't have work today."

Kazuya held up his hand. "I have already taken all of that in consideration. I am willing to employ you as an investigator so you can work the hours that suit you."

That was a sign that he had been thinking seriously about this. Mai was now more interested. It seemed like her normal life was getting further away from her. She had to decide if it was worth losing it.

"I can match your current salary of course so you will not be losing out."

"That is good, but I am also concerned about my mental state," she admitted. "I cannot control it very well. Whilst I do want to help you, I can't be too much help to you if I am not in control."

Kazuya cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Actually I have considered a solution to that. If you are willing to live with me, I can train you to control your dreams and you won't be lonely if you had a nightmare."

Mai took a moment to appreciate how hard it must have been for someone like him to say that. Was this really the person that had so coldly said that he wouldn't marry her yesterday?

More importantly, did she want to do it?

She was aware that sleeping pills and denying that she had the ability was not a long term fix, but she pretended it was. Was Kazuya's suggestion going to be the solution to her problems? She wasn't sure that she would be able to happily live with someone like him that was mostly cold to her.

Something must have shown in her face because Kazuya elaborated.

"I may be a difficult person at times so I can understand why you wouldn't want to live with me. I have a reason for not wanting to marry you like you have your reasons for not wanting to dream. I am renting a large flat at the moment so we can stay out of each other's way unless it is for work."

Mai took a deep breath. So many things had occurred in the past two days that she was getting overwhelmed and needed time to think.

"I think I am able to accept your proposition. I am just worried that I won't be able to save you."

Kazuya smiled. It was rather dazzling considering how he serious he usually looked.

"I am glad to be working with you."

Mai blushed a little. "You should smile more often."

The smile widened. "My mother tells me that I am very charming when a smile and that I should do it more so I can attract myself a girlfriend."

His mother was right about it being charming. Mai was almost able to forget how coldly he had rejected their arranged marriage yesterday.

"Of course I prefer looking at my reflection more," he added, completely spoiling the moment.

"You are such a narcissist, narucisstic Naru-chan!" she pointed at him jokingly.

He looked more surprised than she had predicted.

"Did you miss out an honorific there?"

Mai withdrew her finger in puzzlement. "No."

His expression cleared. "You can call me Naru if you like. It's actually the Japanese pronunciation of what Lin calls me."

If Mai remembered correctly Lin referred to him as 'Noll'. She had no idea what link that name had to his actual name, but she did like the idea of being a little less formal with him.

"I will, Naru."

She made arrangements to meet him at his flat the next day in the afternoon and he walked her to the train station. She knew their relationship had changed that day because Naru called her 'Mai' instead of 'Taniyama-san'.

* * *

Naru returned to his apartment and realised that he probably should inform Lin of the new development. He was his bodyguard after all and his duties would have to extend to protecting Mai as well. The omnouji lived in the apartment next door. At first it had been an inconvenience, now it was more convenient that they did not live together.

Lin did not look happy to see him when he opened the door. He had that stern look he always had when he was about discipline Naru.

"Why did you not tell me that you were going to Ueno Park to see Taniyama-san?"

Naru was unfazed by the glare and the fact that Lin had known where he had gone and who with.

"I didn't want you to ask too many questions before I went and I knew you would send out a shikigami when you noticed I was gone."

Lin looked highly suspicious of him. "I thought that you were not interested in Taniyama-san."

"On the contrary, she is going to move in with me."

If Lin had been drinking anything he would have spat it out in surprise. Instead the omnouji looked wide eyed and shocked. It was the most emotion Naru had ever seen on his face barring a certain incident.

His bodyguard sat down heavily on the sofa. "Noll, I think there are a few things you need to explain to me so I can understand what you just said."

Naru gave a summary of everything that had happened in the past 12 hours. Lin looked annoyed with him. Naru admitted to himself that Lin had the right to be annoyed with him. Lin's concern was his safety first so he should have told him about Mai's dream before he went to meet her.

"You should have consulted me before offering anything to her. Your parents should be asked about it too. You should have also mentioned that accident in Shibuya before."

The narcissist shrugged. "It's not any of their business. Mai has abilities that we need and she needs to learn how to use them. We all benefit out of this. I don't die, you still have someone to protect and Mai is able to cope with her dreams."

The omnouji noted the first name terms and withheld the urge to comment on it. Noll had never got on with a female like this before. Or anyone for that matter.

"I understand the matter now. I do think you jumped into this a bit fast though."

"I nearly died this morning. Mai prevented that," Naru pointed out. "If anything we are cutting it fine."

Lin felt the same way now. It was so fortunate that he had outmanoeuvred Noll and approached her the day before. If he hadn't, Noll might not have been alive anymore.

"When is she moving in?"

"She is visiting tomorrow afternoon. I am planning to relocate certain items out her way so she doesn't find out about _that_ thing," Naru said.

"Are you sure that you can live with someone else without upsetting them?" Lin questioned cautiously. "I don't want Taniyama-san to feel that you are bullying her."

"I will be polite and well mannered," Naru assured him.

* * *

"Don't take the elevator, we both die," was how Mai greeted him the next day.

Naru paused momentarily. This was going to take a little time to become accustomed too. Before the attempts on his life had not been frequent and Lin was the one to save him at the right time.

"I see. We can take the stairs then. Is there anything else I should know?"

They walked up two flights of stairs together and Mai recounted her dream along the way.

"I had trouble waking up from the dream. Ultimately it was my death that pushed me out."

"Perhaps I should start teaching you about astral projection then," Naru mused out loud.

Lin was waiting for them outside his apartment.

"Lin-san, do you live with Naru too?" Mai asked.

The omnouji looked confused by the nickname she was using. She realised that it did sound strange.

"…No, I live next door."

Mai was puzzled as to how Lin was supposed to be Naru's bodyguard if he didn't share the same apartment.

"How can you protect him then?"

"My shikigami keep an eye on him," he explained as Naru input his passcode to let them in.

Mai was impressed at the mention of shikigami. The monk she had known would be very jealous of he knew that she was speaking to someone with shikigami.

"Are you an omnouji then?" she enquired.

Both men turned around to look at her sharply.

"How did you guess?" Lin questioned.

"I think we need to ask you some questions about your past investigations," Naru said, causing Mai to feel a sudden bout of dread.


	5. Chapter 5

**Destined Ties:  
**

 **Chapter 5:**

Mai's mind was churning up various distractions and half truths so she could avoid telling them everything. She didn't want them to pity her for what she had gone through. Naru directed her to sit down on the black leather sofa and offered her tea.

"By the way Mai, can you make tea?" He asked.

The question seemed to be off topic. "…I can."

"Good," Naru answered and left the room.

"Noll likes tea," Lin contributed.

The scientist returned five minutes later with a tea tray. The sight of a rose patterned chine teapot reminded Mai that Naru was actually English and really Oliver Davis. That made her feel more reassured about telling them some of her past. He had abilities as well and must have experienced similar problems.

Naru handed her a teacup and started questioning her.

"Mai, you recognised my name, mentioned a monk and have knowledge of curses. You also knew Masako Hara. If you could tell me how they all tie together it could assist in helping you control your dreams."

Looking down at her teacup was a lot more appealing than looking at Naru and Lin. She could feel their gaze probing her.

"…There were ghost rumours at my high school connected to the old schoolhouse. Eventually the principal called in a strange mix of people to investigate it. One was a monk, there was a priestess, a priest and Masako Hara."

Naru thought it sounded like the principal had been very desperate to resolve the problem if he was willing to call all of those people in. It didn't sound like a combination of people that would work well together either.

"I should probably say now that the monk had a ponytail, the priestess had dyed red hair and wore lots of make-up. The priest was Australian and spoke Japanese with a Kansai accent."

That sounded even more like they were not going to work well together. Naru was almost wincing already.

"A girl in my homeroom class claimed to have powers and that she was the cause of everything. I followed her when she was on one of her rants to stop her and encountered all of them. We ended up solving the case together and kept in contact after."

"Did you go on more cases with them then?" Lin questioned.

"I did. I learnt a lot from them. I haven't seen them since I graduated from high school though so my knowledge is rusty."

"When did you start dreaming of the future?" Naru asked suddenly. Mai may have thought she had escaped that questions, but he was intent on finding out how it had developed.

"On the second case I fell down a well and had a weird dream. It was connected to the case. I didn't think it was that significant until it happened on subsequent cases. That was when it really took off and became more accurate and vivid."

Naru was busy taking mental notes. It did appear that she had never been taught how to control or cope with the dreams. Surely someone in the strange group of investigators should have considered it to help her out.

"Were your dreams always related to the case you were working on?" he asked next.

"At first, yes," she cleared her throat. "I don't want to discuss the more personal ones of that is okay with you."

The scientist understood completely. He knew that something must have happened for her to be so nervous during their first conversation about dreams and for her to be on sleeping pills.

"I will respect your privacy," he said and noticed that Lin looked surprised. "Did any of your companions suggest ways to help you cope with them?"

"They didn't suggest anything that was useful," Mai sighed sadly. "The sleeping pills came from Ayako after it was too late."

"I see," Naru said. "Thank you for explaining."

The omnouji who had been watching the proceedings raised an eyebrow. He was surprised how considerate Noll was being towards Taniyama. The Noll he thought he had known would have interrogated her without a concern for her privacy. He had also thanked her.

Naturally she was the person that was going to be saving his life on a daily basis so Noll was going to have to be considerate of her, but it was still surprising to watch.

"Lin," Naru called, drawing him out of his own thoughts. "I asked you for the contract."

Lin found the contract and handed it over to Mai. It had been drawn up by Noll rather than him and it had some terms that he would have not considered.

"I have taken the fact that I may die into account when I made this. You cannot be blamed for my death or any accidents that occur. You will also be paid after my death for helping prolong my life," Naru told her. "Your wage will be a little higher than your current one on account of the dangers and mental distress it may entail."

Mai was relieved to hear that she would not get the blame if Naru died on her watch. It had been worrying her all night. She signed the contract after reading it through twice and making up her mind that she was going to learn to live either her abilities instead of avoiding them.

"Would you like a tour?" Lin offered. "We cleared out the spare room for you last night."

"Yes, please. I will need to give notice to my work place before I can start working for Naru though," Mai said worriedly.

"You can move in before you finish," Naru called from the living room. "Lin and I can continue investigating the curse by ourselves in the meantime."

Her new bedroom was next to Naru's. She was comforted by that and also a little disconcerted. She had never lived with a male since her father had died or anyone else since she had lived with her teacher. She was very accustomed to living on her own.

The bedroom was white walled and finished with light wood. The furniture looked quite new and clean. Mai wondered if they had bought the furniture or moved into a furnished apartment.

"I used this bedroom for a week before I moved into my own apartment. We used it for extra storage after," Lin told her. "If Noll gets too difficult we can swap."

Mai was touched by his concern. He was obviously doing his best to make her feel better about living with Naru.

"Is there anything I should be aware of about Naru before I move in?" she asked unsurely. She didn't know that much about him. Meeting a person twice was going to be different to moving in with them.

"Noll is very private and can be difficult to talk with. He does not sleep that much so do not be surprised if you hear him walking around at night. He also likes tea and reading," Lin peered out the door suddenly and dropped his voice to a whisper. "Please do not ask him for a PK or psychometry demonstration."

"I won't," Mai agreed. She wasn't sure why, but she could understand him not wanting to do demonstrations.

"You are taking this quite well," Lin commented. "It must feel like an upheaval. I am surprised by it all myself. I have never seen Noll take an interest in a female."

That generated a blush from Mai. It appeared that she had the honour of being the first female that Oliver Davis was interested in. The monk she had known came to mind and she felt a pang. She was missing her temporary family now.

"Lin-san, I am employed to save his life. It's just a coincidence that I am female."

Lin looked like he didn't believe her but didn't say anything and led her out the room. As they passed Naru's room, he came out and Mai caught a glimpse of his room behind him. It was mostly the mirror image of hers, however a photo frame caught her eye. Why did Naru have a photo of himself? She reminded herself that he was a narcissist and keeping a photo of himself by his bed was probably another sign.

She made arrangements with Naru and Lin to move some of her things the following day. Mai thought that things were progressing quite fast with Naru and she hadn't discussed it with anyone yet to see what they thought.

With that in mind she called Michiru when she returned to her own apartment. Michiru and Keiko were the only people that she still met up with from high school and they were aware of her dreams and desire for a normal life.

She summarised the whole situation for Michiru in about two minutes. It felt a relief to tell someone rather than mulling it over by herself.

"Mai-chan, are you sure you doesn't want to marry you?" Michiru asked bluntly once she had finished her explanation. "He asked you to move in with him and he has made special arrangements to provide for you after his death. Those sound like married couple things."

The psychic felt that Michiru was right about it sounding like they were married, but Michiru hadn't seen how coldly Naru had rejected her.

"He also allowed you to give him a nickname and calls you by your first name," she continued. "Case closed. He secretly does want to marry you and is too shy to say it."

"Michiru-chan!" Mai spluttered. "It's not like that!"

She heard a giggle from Michiru and started laughing herself.

"Putting that aside, are you sure you want to have dreams again?" Michiru turned serious. "You gave everything up for a reason."

"Naru said that he would help me with it and that I won't be alone if I have a nightmare."

"That is reassuring," Michiru agreed. "I give my approval to this unexpected development. I say that you should not let this opportunity pass."

"Thank you," Mai said wholeheartedly. "It's nice to get a second opinion from someone not involved."

Her relaxed feeling dissipated at Michiru's next question.

"Are you going to get your old investigating team to help investigate the curse?"

"…Naru and Lin-san know what they are doing," she answered.

Their conversation ended a few minutes after that and Mai was hesitated over her phone. Bou-san, Ayako, Masako, John and Yasuhara and herself had worked well as team back in high school. They had done a curse case together and she wouldn't mind having them back her up.

She reminded herself that it would be awkward to see them again after all these years. She wouldn't mind telling Bou-san about meeting Oliver Davis though. He had been such a fan of him and was always able to answer a question related to him from his past cases to his brother. The only thing he hadn't known was what he looked like.

She paused in her thoughts. According to Bou-san, Oliver Davis had a brother called Eugene Davis.

Naru had never mentioned having a brother. He had only mentioned his foster parents.

What if his brother had been the first victim of the curse?


	6. Chapter 6

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 6:**

1 week later:

Mai finished arranging her bedsheets and looked around the room in satisfaction. She had finally finished moving everything into her new bedroom at Naru's apartment. It had taken a while to decide what she was going to do. In the end she had decided to keep her own apartment and move her essential items to Naru's.

Naru poked his around the doorframe.

"Mai, tea."

Recently she had found out that 'Mai, tea' was Naru's most commonly uttered phrase. He didn't seem to say much else when talking to her.

"I'm coming," she said and headed towards the kitchen.

The kitchen was still fascinating to her. Her kitchen was quite outdated because she had never changed it. This one was very sleek and modern with white cabinets and gleaming marble work tops.

"Do you want green tea or milk tea?" she called out.

"Milk tea," Naru replied from his seat at the kitchen table. "Are you done unpacking now?"

"I have just finished," Mai confirmed and saw what he had out in front of him. "Is that an old family text?"

"Lin got hold of it this morning while you were at work. It's quite hard to read. Reading Japanese has never been my strong suit either so I wanted to ask for your help."

Mai sat down next to him and passed him his tea and took a look. It was a thin bound book of paper that looked very fragile and old. It was no wonder that Naru had a pair of cotton gloves on the table next to it.

"Do you know how old this is?"

"A couple of centuries, I believe," he answered and sipped his tea.

Mai put on the white gloves that were lying next to it and opened it carefully. The writing was faint in some places, sometimes the handwriting was barely legible and completely unreadable, but she was able to read enough to know what it was.

"It's a record of deaths and births in the Shibuya family. I think I saw a couple of marriages in there too, but it's blurred."

"It is useful to have someone that can read older Japanese characters here. Lin's reading isn't too good either," Naru admitted.

Mai was intrigued. She knew Naru had only spent his childhood in Japan so his lack of knowledge was understandable, but Lin was an adult.

"How come he doesn't know older Japanese characters too well?" she asked.

"He's Chinese. Although Kanji is derived from Chinese, it's still hard for him to read."

She hadn't noticed at all and she supposed to be psychic. Not that guessing someone's nationality was part of being psychic. Her abilities had only really extended to knowing if someone was good or bad.

"He speaks Japanese well then," she commented. "How old is this curse?"

Naru sighed. "The source is unknown. It's difficult because people did die quite young a long time ago so it wouldn't have been noticed until much later. Our first objective is to find the first occurrence, but I fear that we won't be able to pinpoint it exactly."

Mai understood the difficulty and she couldn't suggest much that they hadn't already done at the moment.

"When are you going to start helping me with my dreams?" she changed the subject.

"Tonight," Naru said. "Now that you are actually sleeping here we can start immediately. I hope you realise that it means I will have to come into your room."

He looked her in the eye and Mai flushed. She hadn't considered that Naru would need to be in her bedroom before. She would have to wear her nicest pyjamas then.

"It doesn't bother me," she lied.

Naru smirked at her. "I won't be getting in bed with you if that is what you are worried about."

Mai blushed even harder and hid her face in her hands.

"That wasn't what I was worried about!"

The front door beeped and opened. Lin walked into the kitchen a few seconds later and gave them a strange look. Mai realised that it did look weird to walk on a blushing girl and a smirking boy.

"I came round to see if you had made any progress and if Taniyama-san needs any help unpacking."

Mai smiled at him. "I finished just now actually, but thank you for the offer."

"Are you helping Noll out with Kanji?"

She nodded. "This document could be useful because it might show who the curse started with since it shows birth dates and death dates."

When she said that Naru and Lin leaned over her shoulders on either side. Mai blushed at the sudden close proximity.

"I hadn't considered that yet," Naru sighed and picked up a black bound notebook from the sideboard in the corner. "Read out the names and their age when they died."

Mai dutifully began reading out the names as best as she could. There was some difficulty in deciphering them and the wealth of names in a small timeframe was astounding. She reminded herself that back then families had lots of children, but most died young.

The first ten names died before 25. Then she reached the name of someone that lived until 51.

"Naoko Shibuya, 51. She died in 1801. Her husband died a few years later. Is this my relation?"

Lin shook his head. "Your ancestor comes from a different branch of the Shibuya family after this date. I have never heard of any of the names you have mentioned before so this must be from a certain sect of the family rather than the ones we have been looking at so far."

"The curse must not have been started as early as 1801," Naru mused. "Continue."

She read out another five names that were a mixture of dying young and middle aged. After that she came across a non-ending stream of family members dying before 25.

"Naru, they all die young after this," she announced and turned through all the other pages just to check. "The last name in here is 1895."

"That line of the family must have all died off leaving the other Shibuyas to pass the curse on," Lin observed. "After Naoko, who is the first person to die young?"

"Kogoro Shibuya died 25 years old leaving two children. He himself was an only child so everyone after him is descended from him," Mai said.

They were all silent for a moment as they realised the same thing. Naru was the first to break it.

"He could be the source if everyone else after him dies before that age. It could explain the seemingly arbitrary 25 years age threshold."

"It does explain it," Lin agreed. "It looks like we have made a breakthrough."

Mai smiled. Perhaps this was going to be easier than it seemed.

"Where did you get this book?" She asked.

"We've been going around to distant Shibuya relations and viewing any family records they have. From that we have managed to start piecing things together. However until now there hasn't been any major developments, aside from finding you," Lin answered.

"Are the other Shibuya relations aware of the curse?" was her next question.

Naru's eyes met hers. "They are, that is mainly how it was discovered. They just live with it and prepare to die young. That's why I really don't have many relations in Japan and the ones I do are very distant."

A thought struck Mai. Naru could want to destroy the curse so no one else related to him had to die. He was kinder than he appeared to be. She still was not sure how Eugene Davis fitted into it though.

If his brother had died due to the curse it put a new perspective on the situation. Naru was invested in destroying the curse than surviving it because it had killed his brother and he wanted revenge.

It would be best if she asked him about it personally rather than speculate by herself, but it was a very personal topic and Lin had said not to ask too many questions. She vowed not to ask unless it was necessary.

Naru turned back in page in his notebook and cleared his throat.

"Mai, sooner or later we are going to need other people to help us on this case. Between the three of us we can make good progress, but our skill sets aren't going to be sufficient. Hara-san recommended several people to contact if we needed help when we met her at a conference. I think that you might know the people she recommended.

He turned his notebook towards her and Mai's eyes zeroed in on the familiar names written in Naru's neat handwriting.

Houshou Takigawa

Ayako Matsuzaki

John Brown

Osamu Yasuhara

It was the full house of names except for hers and Masako's. They must have continued on without her. It was strange to think of them solving cases without her.

"They are the people that I used to investigate with," she answered cautiously.

Naru hadn't really confirmed that he was going to contact them, it seemed like he was observing her reaction first.

"Would you have objections if I occasionally contacted them and asked for help?" he asked.

Mai considered her answer carefully. She knew that sooner or later an exorcism would be needed and that was Ayako, Bou-san and John's area or that a medium might be needed which was Masako's strength. Yasuhara's strongest suit had been his manners and his research skills. Naru was lacking his politeness, but he clearly knew his research.

She was willing to see them again now that she was going to be more control in abilities. Perhaps it would be closure and allow her to fully move on from that incident in high school.

"I have no objections to you contacting them," she said.

* * *

 **A/N: I am sorry for not replying to anyone's reviews this week. I have been very busy with university work at the moment as I am in my final year and am working on my dissertation. Additionally, I will probably put this story on hiatus soon due to lack of free time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 7** :

It had been a long day for Mai. Progress had been made with the case and then with her personal life. She had said that she was happy for Naru to consult Bou-san and everyone else if he needed to. She accepted that they were going to need some help at some point and that she needed to move on from what had happened when she was younger and this was the way to do it.

The card that Naru had given to her showed that they had set up their own small business together to solve mysterious cases. She was glad that they had continued on with what they had enjoyed doing together. Perhaps Ayako had stopped claiming everything was due to a site bound ghost by now and Bou-san's exorcisms might have a higher success rate.

Her cooking skills had come into use as well. It turned out that neither Lin or Naru could cook or neither had any intention to and they usually got takeout so Mai had cooked something for them.

Now she was getting ready for bed. She had just finished buttoning up her pyjama top when she heard a knock at the door. Naru was right on time.

"I'm glad that my parents don't know anything about this," Naru commented dryly as he sat on the chair next to her bed. "My mother would have palpitations if she heard I was in a female's room."

That made Mai blush fervently. She appeared to have the again have the honour of one of Naru's first times.

"What do I need to do?" Mai asked and fluffed the pillows.

"Lay down like you usually do and relax. I am not going to ask you to do anything hard yet."

Doubtfully Mai lay down and pulled the duvet up to her chin. The mattress was a lot more comfy that her usual so she was already relaxing.

"I'm relaxed," she said.

"That was quick," Naru said with some amusement.

"I'm easily distracted," Mai admitted.

"Close your eyes and relax. This will not work if you fall asleep too quickly."

Mai closed her eyes. It was hard to sleep without sleeping pills so she wouldn't have trouble fulfilling that request.

"Concentrate on that desire to fall asleep and think of what is going to happen tomorrow. Keep both those thoughts in your mind."

Mai could tried to keep hold of that elusive tired feeling that kept evading her and also consider what was going to occur the next day. Her legs and arms began to feel heavier and she had no desire to open her eyes again like she usually did. Naru hadn't told her what they were doing the next day so she couldn't guess accurately and it exhausted her so she fell asleep and into a dream.

She was walking alongside Naru and they were discussing latent psychics. She was unable to control the words coming out of her mouth so she simply listened. Apparently she showed signs of being one.

"Where are we going?" Her future self finally asked much to Mai's happiness.

"Here," Naru said and gestured at the restaurant ahead of them. Mai recognised it as being the one that was around the corner from Naru's apartment. "I'm taking you out for lunch."

"That is kind of you," Mai said.

Just as Mai was wondering if it counted as a date she felt herself being pulled out of the dream. She woke up with a start to find Naru's face right in front of her and extra weight on her bed.

"What did you dream of?" he asked and moved off the bed. "It was a little hard to wake you up."

"Am I a latent psychic?" Mai enquired sleepily.

"You are almost certainly one," Naru confirmed. "I had been planning to tell you tomorrow."

"Well you did and you took me out for lunch."

Naru's reaction was to smirk. "I thought you might see that."

Mai was understandably confused especially since she had just woken up.

"How did you know?"

Naru clasped his fingers and looked thoughtful. "I made a conscious decision earlier to discuss latent psychics with you and to spend a lunch break with you tomorrow. I wanted to see if you would dream of a future event that was practically confirmed to happen first."

"I see," she replied. She did understand what he had said, but not the significance.

He appeared to guess what she was thinking. "It was just an experiment. There are lots of different things I would like to try especially since you mentioned that you were able to dream of past events."

"Why have I been able to dream about things before without using the method you taught me?"

"In some cases it could have been you channelling your unconscious fears into dreams. Other times. With your previous cases, your subconscious mind was concentrating on solving the case and produced the dreams. These are just theories by the way. I need more data."

Mai flinched. He was right about that. Her worries had often manifested themselves into her dreams. More recently she had been concerned about Naru so that was probably why she had been able to dream about him.

"I have a hypothesis that on some level you can sense what is going to happen and that produces your dreams," Naru mused. "You do have good instincts. That has been evident."

Mai was reassured by the compliment. He hadn't added that she had instincts like an animal this time as well. She was beginning to wish that she really had explored her abilities more when she was younger instead of fearing them.

"You can sense danger quite well as well. I am assuming that I will not die tomorrow because you chose to dream of our excursion rather than my death," Naru continued on.

"Are you wanting to do any more experiments tonight?" Mai yawned.

Naru stood up and moved the chair to its original position which was against the wall.

"No, you can go to sleep. I need to write the results up."

That made her sound like some kind of lab rat. She reminded herself that she was getting good benefits out of being a lab rat.

"Good night, Naru," she said.

"Sleep well," Naru replied and closed the door.

There was a lot to digest from the short session and she was too tired to analyse it at the moment so she made herself comfortable again and quickly fell asleep.

The person in the room next to hers was feeling the opposite. Naru was keen to type up his observations instead of going to sleep. It wasn't like he was able to sleep at night anyway. He always had nightmares about Gene.

There were two reasons for wanting to destroy the curse: revenge and protection. He did want to avenge his brother's death and he didn't want the curse to continue to kill of his family's bloodline.

He opened up his laptop and located the folder of the files that he had devoted to Mai Taniyama. They varied from her address to photos of her supplied by Masako Hara. Now he added a new file about her abilities.

She had more abilities than everyone had given her credit for. He had a desire to help her out of empathy. He had not enjoyed having PK and psychometric abilities when he was younger at all. Dreaming of the future was another ability altogether that had large consequences. It was entirely possible that she had experienced these consequences at some point.

He would be lying to himself if he believed that he wasn't curious about what had happened in her past, but he also understood why she had chosen to abandon her abilities. It was clear that no one around her had been able to help her.

Naturally he could probably find out what had happened by asking Masako Hara. He had noticed that she seemed to quite like him. He also considered asking her an invasion of Mai's privacy so he had no intention to.

* * *

That night Mai dreamt of the past. Of her cases with Bou-san, Ayako, John, Masako and of course, her boyfriend Yasuhara. Of her high school life that had been blighted by people finding out about her dreams.

She woke up breathing heavily and sweating from the one where she was called a freak. Mai sat up in bed and sighed. That particular dream had been a recurring nightmare that she had suffered from before the sleeping pills.

Her withdrawal from investigating with the others had been mainly due to the rumours and comments and because she didn't want to know the future all the time.

She sat up in bed and sighed. If she was going to live with her dreams now and control them she should be able to find a way to avoid that dream.

One concern she had was that seeing her former investigation partners again would trigger all the dreams of the past to come back in full force. That was why she had lost all contact with them deliberately. She was afraid.

She lay back down and stared up at the ceiling for a while until her eyes started to close involuntarily. She might as well think about the case whilst she was tired, it could produce a dream.

She thought of Naru and about his probably dead brother. What had happened to him?

She fell asleep with those thoughts in her mind and something interesting happened.

Her dream was different to usual. It was a lot darker with the only source of light being herself. There was only darkness ahead of her as she stumbled along until she came across a slowly growing ball of light.

The ball of light expanded into a person dressed in black. He also had dark hair and pale skin. When they locked eyes she realised that he looked exactly like Naru.

"Naru?" she asked aloud.

* * *

 **A/N: I spent most of this week in a laboratory at university and stayed there quite late for my data collection so I have not finished the next chapter.**

 **This means that this story is now on hiatus. I cannot confirm when I will be able to update again. It might be Easter or summer.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has supported this story so far.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 8:**

The Naru in front of her smiled at her very dreamily which garnered a large blush from Mai. Naru really did look his best when he was smiling. It was quite distracting. She couldn't remember what she was doing there.

"Mai, I am here to help you with your dreams."

That line made Mai remember everything. She was trying to avoid certain dreams and find other desirable dreams.

"Aren't you doing that already?" she asked curiously.

Dream Naru flashed another heart stopping smile.

"I am going to do it better."

The line sort of made sense to Mai. Being in her dreams with her instead of guiding her before she fell asleep was going to be more effective. She hadn't been aware that Naru had the power to appear in her dreams though.

"I have been trying to get through for a while now," dream Naru continued on. "You have only just opened your mind to it now."

"I didn't know you could do this Naru. You never mentioned you could be in my dream with me," Mai replied.

"It's complicated," he sighed. "I am going to direct you to a dream now."

Before she could say anything he had pushed her and she was falling through the darkness like Alice down the rabbit hole. She plummeted into a completely different landscape and through the roof of a house.

Mai landed with a thump on a tatami mat and checked herself for injuries. She was fine and there wasn't a hole in the ceiling. It appeared that she was unable to properly interact with her surroundings and she was only able to observe.

She settled for trying to work out where she was and what year it was. Mai walked through the house and looked around for indicators of the year. It was a traditional Japanese house which still existed so that wasn't much of a hint, but there were no signs of running water or electricity. She had to be very far in the past. Possibly the furthest back she had ever been.

There was no sign of the inhabitants so she walked through the wall to check outside the house. It was situated in what looked like farmland. She spotted a flash of colour in the fields and approached it. There had to be a reason she was here.

It turned out to be a parasol that she had seen and there was a man and woman standing under it. The man was dressed extravagantly whilst the woman was dressed much simpler and in a coarser fabric. As Mai walked closer to see their faces, she felt herself being pulled away.

She woke up with a start to see the sunlight streaming into her new bedroom and she could hear Naru moving around in the kitchen. It was morning already. It had truly been an eventful night.

Mai stared at the ceiling for a while, trying to make sense of everything she had dreamed that night. There was the dream about herself and Naru, then her dreams of her past and then Naru had appeared again and led her into a strange dream. It hadn't related to her so it must be related to the case.

With that in mind she got out of bed and changed out of her pyjamas to join Naru in the kitchen. Naru was frowning over the newspaper and a cup of tea when she entered. He had dark bags under his eyes suggesting that he hadn't slept well.

"I think I had a dream related to the case," Mai told him.

He looked more energised when she said that and immediately rushed off to get his notebook.

"So you dreamt of a couple from a long time ago and the man was probably seeing a woman far below him in class," Naru summarised.

It sounded so silly when he said it out loud.

"I'm sorry that it's so vague," Mai frowned. "I am trying my best. I woke up before I could see their faces."

"Well, my family were quite well off in the past mainly from owning land," Naru acknowledged. "I don't think they ever married out of their station though which could suggest something."

Mai was eager to hear how her dream made sense.

"The woman you saw could have been his mistress and she could be the source of the curse or at least related to it. There had to have been a reason why your dream took you to that time and place," Naru explained. "We should try to expand on it tonight."

"That does make sense," Mai agreed.

Naru closed his notebook and looked somewhat satisfied. "I wasn't expecting to make progress this fast."

"How long does it usually take you to solve a case?" Mai asked out of interest. Bou-san had always said that Oliver Davis would be able to solve their cases in seconds.

"It all depends on the available resources and the people I have with me. I can't do everything by myself-as much as I want to," Naru sighed and for a moment it looked like his mind was somewhere else. "Do you want toast?"

The swift change in subject confused for a second before she realised that he probably didn't want to discuss his past cases for some reason. She didn't want to discuss her past experiences either.

"Toast is fine."

"I just realised that I don't have anything you can use for a traditional breakfast," Naru said. "We can go shopping after lunch."

Mai had noticed that there was a lack of food in Naru's kitchen and readily agreed to a shopping excursion.

* * *

They spent the morning going through more old paperwork. There were some interesting documents, but nothing of relevance to the case. Lin visited to drop off more old documents and was intrigued to hear about Mai's dream.

When lunchtime arrived, as Mai had dreamt Naru invited her out to the restaurant nearby and they discussed latent psychics along the way. She was glad to hear that there were actually other people exactly like her that could live normal lives.

At the restaurant Mai chose a chicken katsu curry whilst Naru went for a regular curry and they discussed non case related matters whilst they ate which were mainly food related.

"Do people in your country really eat sandwiches with chips in?" Mai gasped.

Naru smiled. "If it's the double carbohydrates you are shocked about: Japan is just as bad. I have seen those noodle bread products here."

"That is true," Mai admitted. "Curry, chips and rice is still strange."

"That's a Welsh tradition, not English," Naru sighed and realised he had confused her. "Wales is the neighbouring country to England and is one of the other countries that makes up the United Kingdom."

"Are there any other strange food habits I should know about?"

"Scotland is the home of the deep fried Mars bar," Naru commented. "I've never had one but G-"

He suddenly broke off and changed the subject. "What are you making for dinner tonight?"

Mai narrowed her eyes and at the sudden subject change. There was clearly someone that Naru didn't want to talk about. It couldn't be his brother because his name didn't begin with a G.

"I hadn't thought about it yet," she replied. "Do you have any requests? I'm not sure I could make some of the things you told me about though."

"I have no real preference. I'm still trying lots of new foods here. You can surprise me," he said.

After Naru paid for their lunch he led her to the supermarket where Mai launched into shopping mode. She hadn't cooked for more than one person for years so she had to adjust her amounts. Her employer split from her fairly early on leaving her to choose on her own.

She found him again in the fruit section looking curiously at the apples.

"Are the apples that fascinating?" She asked.

Naru shook his head. "Whilst they aren't like English apples, it's not that. I was just thinking that I miss apple crumble."

He said the name in English so Mai had to translate what he had said before she understood.

"I can make it if you want," she offered.

Naru turned away. "It would bring back too many memories. I'll be waiting for you outside."

Mai watched him go. Something had definitely happened in his past that was affecting him. Could it be his brother? If he didn't want reminders of him, there had to have been something significant that occurred. She wasn't sure if she wanted to find out yet.

He deserved his privacy like her. Then she remembered that he knew about her work with Bou-san and the others. It was true that he had promised not to contact them without her consent, but he had still found out enough to know about her past with them.

She could dig a little. Mai looked up how to make apple crumble and added the ingredients to her basket for future use. As promised she found Naru waiting outside for her.

"Is it likely that the cause of the curse is a scorned mistress?" she asked on the way back to the apartment. "It sounds like a romance novel."

Naru looked completely serious when he answered. "Curses are very powerful, it doesn't matter how cliché the curser's intentions are. What matters is how they affect you. It's equally like that the source is my ancestor rejecting a mistress as it is that my ancestor wouldn't let an old woman shelter from a storm. Both events could result in the same curse."

Mai was sure that he had referenced something with the second example, but she understood his point completely. The source of the curse needed to be found and destroyed without any regard as to the underlying cause of the curse.

When they returned she unpacked the shopping and filled the mostly empty cupboards and fridge. Naru disappeared into his office saying that she wasn't needed until the evening which left Mai with some time to herself.

Mai sat on her bed. She wanted to know a little about Naru's brother to see if he had died. She wanted Naru to not look so sad anymore. The best person to ask about Oliver Davis was of course Bou-san, but she also had the internet available to her.

Several web searches revealed nothing about a death. However she also found no genuine information relating to the two. There were no birth dates, photos or any sort of personal information about Oliver and Eugene Davis so it was unlikely that information about his death would be available.

She was going to have to talk to an Oliver Davis fan. Naru had given her the contact information of everyone she had worked with so before she could overthink anything she dialled the first name on the list which was John. There was a chance that he would not recognise her voice.

He picked up within the first few rings.

"John Brown speaking."

"…Is Eugene Davis alive?" Mai cut straight to the point. "I heard that you were a person that would know."

"…He is believed to have died last year," John confirmed. "Mai-san?"

* * *

 **A/N: I am now free of exams and assignments so I can update. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 9:**

She had her answer and now she had to deal with the can of worms she had just opened. Fortunately it was only John. He would keep it quiet for her. He had always been the most reliable member of their ghost hunting group for a reason.

"Um, yes. Can you please not tell anyone that I called? I will contact them in my own time," she requested and hung up.

At least she knew the truth now. Naru's brother had been killed by the curse which explained his motivations in wanting to destroy the curse. He wanted revenge for his brother's death. He had been distant when talking about British food because it reminded him of his brother who had died. It all made sense now.

She didn't know enough about him to know if he had been quiet and withdrawn before his death, but Naru had definitely been affected by it.

Mai had no further intentions of asking anything else about Eugene Davis. All she had wanted to know was if he was dead. It was up to Naru to tell her more if he wanted.

* * *

The omnouji came around for dinner and told her a little about his experiences with the paranormal which kept the mood at the dinner table fairly lively much to Mai's relief. She felt a little guilty about prying into Naru's brother's death and then she reminded herself that Naru had probed into her past as well and had known where she lived and worked.

"Are you working on Taniyama-san's dreams again tonight?" Lin questioned over their after dinner tea.

Naru looked up from his teacup. "Naturally. We need to know more about the people she saw in her dream. The information from her last one was very scant although illuminating."

He nodded in her direction. Mai didn't take any offence. She knew it had been very vague. Masako had sometimes had nastier words to say about her dreams whilst everyone else had encouraged her. Deep down she had known Masako was right and had tried her best to remember more and improve her abilities. It was what had ruined her in the end.

"Have you found anyone likely in the family records yet?" Lin asked.

"There was a branch of wealthy Shibuyas that I found records of," Naru answered. "I will get the records to check the death dates of all of the descendants and the land deeds."

He returned a few minutes later with the pile of documents and laid them out neatly.

"This is the document we discussed yesterday where we found a likely name- I was going to use it to guide Mai once she got better with her abilities. These are deeds and records of land ownership that goes back far," he gestured to another pile. "We can cross reference names for the wealthy members of the family."

If Mai remembered correctly the name they found was Kogoro Shibuya as the early deaths of family members started after him and they all died before the age that he died at. She took some of the deeds and started reading the names. It was a difficult task due to the faded ink and she wasn't sure that she could accurately read the names, but there was nothing resembling the name she was looking for.

She put her pile aside and grabbed another stack of deeds. Naru's reading speed was considerably slower than hers and Lin was far behind her as well. Mai soon found what she was looking for.

"I found Kogoro Shibuya in the deeds, he did own a large amount of land including several farms," she announced. "I think it was mostly inherited land and a little new land."

Naru came to look over her shoulder. "You are right. He could be the person that you saw in your dream. It could be a shot in the dark, but we really don't have much to go on yet."

"That man was married and had two children with his wife Eri," Lin told them after consulting the record book they had found the other day. "He could have had a mistress as well. It was fairly common in those days. He could even had illegitimate children as well."

The narcissist looked thoughtful. "It's a good starter and we haven't found anything better before. We can proceed with the theory that he is the originator of the curse. Mai and I will work on dreams and we can look for any further details about him in the meantime."

* * *

Later that night Mai settled into her bed with her nicest pyjamas and waited for Naru to arrive. He turned up with his notebook and sat down in the chair by her bed.

"I am planning on staying here for longer so I can take notes on your dream before you forget the details," he explained.

Mai blushed at the thought of Naru watching her sleep all night. She really hoped that she didn't snore.

"Please don't make a reference to Twilight," he requested unexpectedly.

That was something she had never expected Oliver Davis to say. She did remember the film about vampires and an idiotic human that she had thought was romantic at the time and when viewing it a second time later on she realised her mistake. The part where he watched her sleep was especially creepy.

"It's okay, I had completely forgotten about that film. How come you know about it?"

Naru shuddered. "My mother was a fan for a while and made us- I mean me watch it. I also had to watch the sequels. They only got more terrible as it went on."

Mai could picture Naru being forced to watch those films quite well and she stifled a smile. Then she processed his slip up about his brother and it reminded her that he was clearly intent on not telling her about his brother.

She lay down and arranged the duvet so it wasn't too stifling.

"This is when I should start relaxing," Mai said out loud and closed her eyes. Reading old documents had tired her eyes out so she felt herself slipping into sleep easily.

"I'm relaxed," she announced.

"Yet again, that was quick," Naru noted with amusement. "Focus on thinking about your dream last night and if you start to feel uncomfortable, return here."

Mai was too far gone into sleep to respond. Her vision turned from black into being illuminated with light. Dream Naru was waiting for her like last time with a soft smile.

"Hello, Mai. What do you want to dream this time?" he asked.

Mai was slightly confused. Naru had just told her what to dream.

"Anything that adds context to what I saw last time."

Dream Naru nodded and propelled her backwards.

"Stay safe," was the last thing she heard as the environment changed.

* * *

She was in the same house again only this time it was late afternoon and it was occupied. The woman she had seen the back of this time was right in front of her drinking out a plain teacup. Mai was eager to get a closer look at her.

The woman was dressed in a simple grey yukata with her back hair neatly tied up. Mai recognised that she was a working class woman with pretty features.

A light knocking from outside became apparent and the woman eagerly sprang up and rushed through the sliding doors to the entrance of the house. Mai followed her and recognised that the person standing outside was the man she had seen last time.

He was as she had noticed before, much more expensively dressed in a delicately patterned kimono. The theory that he was a rich man and she was his mistress was beginning to make more sense. She just needed to know their names and confirm their situation.

They embraced briefly and the woman became tearful.

"Kogoro-san, it feels like I have been waiting an age to see you again," she lamented.

He laid a gentle hand on the small of her back. "Yoko-san, you know I can only see you on certain days. You must be patient."

The man's name fitted in with their theory perfectly. He was the original target of the curse. Now she had to deduce Yoko's part in the situation. She was romantically involved with a man much richer than her and Kogoro's wife was not called Yoko. As the records said, his wife was called Eri.

The fact that they could only meet on certain days added more evidence to back up the theory. She could wake up and return now, however she wanted to stay to witness more.

* * *

Naru watched Mai sleep waiting for signs of unease and distress so he could wake her up. As the clock ticked her facial expression didn't change and she didn't wake up. He deduced that she was dreaming in the right place and his thoughts became distracted.

He felt exhausted from the lack of sleep. He hadn't slept well since Gene's death and it was beginning to show badly. When talking to Mai he had slipped up a few times. If she had noticed, she hadn't said anything and for that he was grateful. He didn't feel quite ready to tell her about Gene's death. He always saw it in his dreams.

She was lucky that she could fall into sleep that easily. He felt sleepy watching her and soon his eyes closed.

He jerked awake when he felt someone prodding his side.

"Naru."

He opened his eyes slowly to see Mai grinning up at him.

"I had a very useful dream."

He reached for his notebook and struggled to stifle a yawn.

"The man in my dream is Kogoro Shibuya and the woman is named Yoko. They can only meet on certain days and she is a lot more enthusiastic about seeing him than he is," she paused and blushed. "They also kissed a lot."

"I see," was all Naru said as he took notes.

She wasn't his wife so he probably was his mistress. She could also be the progenitor of the curse. There was adequate evidence. She had a potential motive and the timeframe was right.

"Did you see anything that would suggest that she was skilled enough to create a major curse?"

Mai shook her head. "No. I can't interact with things though. I can only observe. All she did was drink tea."

"She could have developed knowledge after a catalytic event. If she is the source of the curse, something must have happened to make her want to curse the Shibuya family. Ideally we can try to find that event tomorrow night," he closed his notebook. "I am impressed that you are making such fast progress."

"I can't say that I've done all the work. You've been the most helpful person," Mai told him with a cheerful smile.

Perhaps his power of suggestion was more powerful than he had thought. Whilst he led her initially Mai was the one that had to actually link to the past. He didn't suspect that someone else was helping her.

"Are we finished?" Mai asked with a yawn.

"I wouldn't mind knowing if my life is endangered tomorrow."

"Of course," she replied and lay back down. "I'll wake you up when I have a dream."

"I won't fall asleep," Naru protested and sighed when he saw that she had already fallen asleep.

Mai didn't see Dream Naru this time, she fell straight into a more 21st century dream. Naru was making her breakfast again and offered her strawberry jam with her toast. The dream skipped to evening where she made beef stew for dinner and ended with Naru in her room. Clearly Naru was not in danger.

She woke herself up and found Naru asleep in the chair again. She reached out to wake him up and hesitated. It was obvious from his eyes that he didn't get much sleep. He had already fallen asleep tonight once before. It wouldn't do any harm to leave him where he was. She rummaged through her closet and found her spare blanket. She covered him gently with the blanket and got back into bed.

She didn't think Naru would be too annoyed with her for not waking him up. There weren't going to be any threats on his life and he was going to make her breakfast in the morning.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews on the last chapter. I was worried that everyone had forgotten about this because I had to go on hiatus for so long.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 10:**

Naru opened his eyes slowly. He felt like he had slept in an uncomfortable position. He looked around in confusion. The walls of his bedroom were not yellow and he didn't sleep with a pink blanket. His eyes fell on a slumbering Mai and he knew where he was.

He had fallen asleep in Mai's room and she hadn't woken him up. Instead she had covered him with a blanket and left him asleep. Strangely enough he didn't mind. He felt unusually refreshed from a full night of uninterrupted sleep and he didn't remember dreaming about Gene.

He stood up and checked the time. It was 10 o'clock already. He really had slept for a long time. It was unusual for him to sleep any later than 8 in the morning. Naru debated whether or not to wake Mai up due to the late time and decided to leave her. She looked comfortable and surprising adorable.

Naru shook his head. He didn't just think that Mai looked adorable. She was someone under his employ that was helping him out. It wasn't appropriate.

When Mai walked into the kitchen bleary eyed she found Naru making toast like he had been in her dream. He smiled at her when he saw her and she blinked. Normally he just nodded at her when he saw her in the morning-he had appeared to not be a morning person.

"I'm sorry for not waking you up, you looked deeply asleep," she said.

"It's fine," Naru answered. "Would you like strawberry jam?"

Mai peered probingly at Naru. He didn't have any dark bags under his eyes. He must have slept well which made her happy.

"Yes, please," she accepted and sat down at the table. "Is Lin coming around this morning?"

Naru put a plate of toast in front of her and sighed.

"Actually, I've only just woken up so I haven't made arrangements. Lin will probably get worried and come round on his own."

As if on cue the front door beeped and Lin rushed in looking worried. When he saw them sitting together at the table his face cleared in relief.

"It's not like you to not contact me," Lin noted.

"I've only just woken up," Naru grumbled.

The omnouji sat down opposite him. "That is rare. You look better though."

"He fell asleep in my room," Mai explained innocently.

Lin watched as Noll's face flushed red. Was there something he was missing? Oliver Davis was actually looking refreshed for once and had slept all night in a female's bedroom. Luella would have a heart attack if she heard about that and Madoka would get all too happy about it.

"Don't you dare tell my mother," Naru hissed under his breath to him. "She will get the wrong idea completely. We haven't told her about Mai anyway."

"I had no intention," Lin said truthfully. "This may get mentioned when the curse has been destroyed though. We will probably have to write a report."

Naru scowled. There was no way that that detail was going to end up in a case report that was going to be read by everyone as SPR including his parents. Whilst he was going to have to mention Mai, he would give the impression that everything occurred in a scientific environment and not in a bedroom in his apartment.

Mai was struggling to follow the conversation and gave up in favour of eating. She didn't always understand some of the things between Naru and Lin.

"Did you make any progress with the case last night?" Lin changed to a different tack.

"Mai found out some significant things. Kogoro Shibuya is the family member that was first cursed and the person likely to have cast the curse is his mistress," Naru explained. "This means that we can focus all of our research on that person now."

"Did you find out the name of the mistress? I could check for anything mentioning her."

"Yoko. I didn't hear her surname," Mai contributed. "I don't think you would be able to find anything about her. Aren't mistress supposed to be a secret?"

"That is true," Lin admitted. "Should we consider the possible scenarios that led to the curse instead?"

Naru retrieved his notebook and Lin unpacked his laptop whilst Mai cleared up the table.

"The most obvious suggestion is that he stopped seeing her and she was hurt enough to curse him," Lin began.

Mai shook her head. She had a feeling this was going to happen. Lin and Naru didn't seem to be too good with understanding females.

"No, that doesn't sound plausible. That isn't a strong enough reason to curse the entire Shibuya family line."

Her employer gave her a look of approval. "Mai does have a good point. What do you suggest then?"

She tried to picture the situation. If she was dumped by a rich man, she would be sad and angry about it, but she wouldn't destroy the lives of his descendants. A mistress wasn't supposed to be permanent. Unless she didn't know he was married.

"Perhaps she didn't know he was married and she was mistress. Then she found out and cursed him and his descendants," she paused. "I still think we can't be sure yet."

Naru took notes whilst she was talking. "What makes you believe that she didn't know he was married?"

Mai thought back to her dream from the previous night. She had been too happy for someone that was only seeing a man on the sly.

"He was married at the time, they could only meet on certain days and she didn't understand why that was. She was also very happy to see him. If she was his mistress, she shouldn't be that happy to see a man cheating on his wife."

When she said it out loud she realised how weak it sounded. She just had a feeling that it was the right answer and usually her instincts were correct.

There was a moment of silence and she could see they were both thinking it over.

"Mai could be right," Naru conceded. "I have a possible addition to the theory as well. She could have had a child before she found out."

That would explain the targeting of the descendants rather than just the man himself. Mai thought that it all added up quite well.

Lin was busy typing away and frowning over his laptop screen.

"To add to both of your suggestions, I have something else to add. I noticed that Kogoro Shibuya died in the same year that his second child was born. This could also be a factor in the curse," he said.

Mai was the first to summarise. "She had his illegitimate child around the same time as his actual child and then she found out that he had been married so she cursed him and his future family as payback. It is starting to add up."

The narcissist nodded in satisfaction. "We can't be sure on the accurate timeframe yet, but it does make sense. I am also interested in the exact method she chose to curse the family line because Mai said that she appeared to be normal. That something else we can build on."

"I am also interested in the occurrences of the murder attempts," Lin added. "There is a pattern for them. I haven't been able to map it accurately until now because the curse only targets one person at once."

Mai noticed that Naru's eyes narrowed as he said that.

"What is the pattern?"

Lin turned his laptop around to show them a graph.

"The attacks only happen on certain days in the week. If this is correct, there should be an attempt tomorrow. If my theory is confirmed, we will be also be predict all future attempts."

Naru squinted at the graph. "It does seem to add up. I can't explain why the selection of certain days though."

Mai had an idea of why. "Yoko said that they only met on certain days. These days could be the same days as the attacks."

Naru and Lin looked impressed with her.

"You're right. We seem to have found an explanation for almost everything," Lin observed.

The narcissist was in agreement. "Honestly all we need to do now is to find out the method she used and find a way to break it. Having Mai with us has been very beneficial."

Mai inwardly glowed at the compliment. She did like to feel appreciated for her abilities rather than doubted and disbelieved like she had been before.

"Can't you summon her spirit?" she asked. "You could do a peaceful exorcism that way."

Lin smiled sadly. "Whilst as an omnouji, I can do that: it's actually impossible in this case. I don't have enough information on her to be able to do that. We only know her first name. That isn't enough."

Naru closed his notebook and sighed. "Besides that, do you really think we could exorcise her peacefully?"

Mai had to admit that Naru was right. She was very accustomed to peaceful exorcisms, she had forgotten that it wasn't always possible. A peaceful exorcism was also a lot more than Yoko deserved.

* * *

For dinner Mai made the three of them beef stew like she had in her dream. It had become the norm to avoid discussing the case at mealtimes. Instead Naru told her about a complex case that he and Lin had spent months working on.

"In the end we used a medium to ask some of the victims about the killer," Naru explained. "One of them provided the information we needed and we peacefully exercised the spirit."

"Could you use that for this case?" Mai said thoughtfully.

She didn't miss the look between Naru and Lin and she winced. Eugene Davis had been a medium. She was doing a bad job of keeping his mind off his dead brother.

"I used my psychometry and it isn't useful in the same way," Naru answered shortly and stood up. "I'm going to review the case notes in my room. Mai, I will see you at the usual time."

He strode off leaving Mai and Lin staring after him. Lin was the first to break the awkward silence.

"Taniyama-san, it's not your fault at all. Noll is in a stressful situation and he acts like this regularly. This is just the first time it's happened in front of you," Lin informed her gently. "He will be normal the next time he sees you. He doesn't hate you, he's actually quite fond of you."

This made Mai realise how much she appreciated Lin's presence. Then she processed the last part.

"How do you know that he is fond of me?" she asked curiously.

She hadn't noticed any special behaviour on his part. It wasn't like she had never had a boyfriend before so she knew how men acted around girls they liked.

Lin gave her a small smile. "I've never seen him spend so much time around a female willingly let alone make them breakfast and sleep in their bedroom."

This made blush. When it was said like that, it did sound like she and Naru were involved romantically.

"It's not like that," she protested weakly hoping that she wasn't blushing.

Lin's smile only grew wider. "It's okay, Taniyama-san. It's good to see Noll interacting with someone new and well, female. He hasn't had much experience with them so be understanding of him."

Their strange conversation ended there and Mai wasn't sure what Lin had been implying. It sounded like he had given her approval to be around Naru and that she should cut him slack.

* * *

As Lin had predicted Naru made no mention of the earlier incident when he came into her room later on. He was acting normally and settled into the chair next to her bed like usual and opened his notebook.

"We are going in order of priority this evening," he announced. "I want to confirm if Lin's theory is right."

The psychic lay down in bed and snuggled up to the pillow. It was going to be harder to get to sleep because she hadn't had much to do all day. She settled for completely clearing her mind and soon her vision changed into bright colours.

She got up as normal and Naru was waiting for her with toast. Then her dream warped into later on in the day. Mai noted the time on the clock. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and she and Naru were poring over old documents at the table again.

"Since we've finished that pile, I'll get the others. These ones are older so be careful with them," he warned and stood up from the table.

He walked over to the glass fronted cabinet in the corner of the living room and took out the documents. As he turned around the cabinet began to shake and Mai noticed her vision warping.

She shouted out a warning, but it was too late.

The cabinet fell down on top of Naru and crushed him to the floor. Almost immediately the blood began to seep across the carpet and his outstretched hand was completely covered in glass shards.

* * *

Mai woke up with a loud scream and tears pouring down her face. Naru was by her side in seconds.

"Mai, what did you see?" he demanded.

It took a moment to arrange her thoughts and focus on the question. Her breath wouldn't stop coming in short gasps. Her breath hitched when Naru grasped her hand.

"Calm down, Mai. Breathe slowly."

Mai slowed her breathing as requested and calmed down enough to speak weakly.

"You died. The glass cabinet in the living room fell on top of you. There was lots of blood."

Instead of replying immediately Naru fetched her a tissue and wiped her face for her.

"I will make sure that doesn't happen tomorrow," he said eventually. "At least we know Lin is right now. Are you going to be okay now?"

"I think so," Mai lied.

It didn't fool Naru. He took one glance at her and raised his eyebrows.

"I'll make you some tea," he said. "Come with me."

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter is turning out to be mostly fluff. I hope no one minds.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 11:**

Watching Naru make a cup of tea for her was a surprisingly calming experience because it allowed her to rearrange her thoughts and stop them from being so frantic. He finished it off the teamaking by pouring in a measure of milk.

"I hope you like milk tea," he said as he presented it to her.

Mai put her hands around the cup and felt reassured by its warmth. She wasn't in a dream anymore. She took a sip and sighed in contentment.

"This is going to be an awkward thing to say, but it's for the purposes of the case. You have dreamt of me dying twice before this and I get the impression that you didn't react in this way before," Naru said. "You probably would have had dreams filled with blood before. Why is your reaction different this time?"

He was right, she had dreamt of him dying before and hadn't been upset. Was it because she knew him better now and might like him? She tried not to dwell on that thought because of its implications.

"I have had nasty dreams before that I ended up becoming mostly desensitised to," she answered. "This time was different, my vision kept warping and it felt more realistic."

Naru looked intrigued. "Perhaps it's because you have improved your abilities. Your senses in a dream are more attuned which is why you sensed different things to usual."

Mai thought back to her dream, there had been something else different about it.

"Usually, when I dream I have a third person perspective; there have been exceptions, but I'm usually an observer. This time I was myself and I saw everything from my perspective."

"That would add to the realism," Naru frowned. "I think I know why your vision kept warping by the way."

That was something she had been about to ask about.

"The reason Lin was able to detect danger before was because his shikigami were able to detect a spirit that felt threatening. You were also able to sense it in the dream. If you improve anymore, you might be able to identify it properly."

It would be a lie to say that Mai hadn't wondered how Naru had survived before now. It also explained why Lin had approached her, he hadn't been able to prevent the death of Eugene Davis and had searched for a solution.

"Would that spirit be Yoko then?" She asked.

"It could well be," he acknowledged. "It could also be something under her control. As I said before, I have no idea what method she used or how powerful she was. When we know that, we can work out how to exorcise her."

"Do you want me to dream about her again?"

Naru shook his head. "You have done enough tonight and I'm not sure that you will be able to get to sleep. We can do it tomorrow- you have done the most important part."

Secretly Mai was thankful for that. She felt bolt awake from the tea and from her adrenaline.

"What are we going to do tomorrow to avoid your death?" She settled for asking. "It is going to happen at 3:00pm."

"I intend to be out of the apartment for the afternoon with you. I think we can leave some equipment here for analysis."

At the mention of equipment Mai perks up. Bou-san would never shut up about Oliver Davis' investigation methods.

"Are you going to measure the temperature, EVP and film it?"

Naru gave her a searching look. "One of this days, when this is over, you are going to have to tell me about some of your cases."

"You can tell me more about yours in return," she smiled. If she was going to give him more personal information, he was going to have to reciprocate.

"That's fair."

* * *

It was arranged that the two of them would be out all afternoon and Lin would stay close to the apartment building in case anything went wrong. Naru took her to another café, this one was British themed with Victorian style interior decorating. There was damask wallpaper and lace everywhere from the doilies to the waitresses' aprons.

"Is how places look like in England?" She asked.

Naru shook his head and found them a quiet table at the back.

"I sometimes like to come here anyway. There's not too many people around and the tea is good."

Mai picked up the menu, checking for those strange things that Naru had told her about last time. To her disappointment they were not there. Instead it was more stereotypical things like high tea and cucumber sandwiches.

"Is there anything you recommend?" she questioned.

"I've been working my way down the menu. For you, I think you will like the cream tea."

That sounded like a strange combination to her, but she didn't question it. Whilst they waited for their orders to arrive, she looked around at the décor of the café and was having fun spotting the little touches like the miniature red London buses when she saw someone dressed in a lot of red with matching hair and nails.

The woman looked a lot like Ayako.

She took a closer look at the woman's mannerisms and strained to hear her conversation. She was talking about trees and exorcisms. It had to be Ayako.

The most worrying thing was that Ayako and the person she was with were approaching the empty table next to them. Something must have shown on her face because Naru asked if she was all right.

"It's really awkward, but can you hide me?" she hissed at him.

There was a moment of stillness and then Naru put his hand around her waist and pulled her closer to him so her head was resting on his chest and her face was hidden.

"Is that Ayako Matsuzaki?" he whispered.

Mai nodded.

"Hara-san described her very well," he explained. "Do you want to move table?"

It was going to be impossible to move without being noticed. The chances of her face being visible were high. She just had to have had a haircut recently. Ayako knew her best with short hair.

"No. She will see us then."

"Is it bad if she sees you?" he murmured.

"Yes."

Naru paused and breathed in deeply. Being pressed up against his chest allowed her to feel it. His heartbeat was also surprisingly rapid.

"Our orders are here so you are going to have to move unless you want me to feed you everything."

As he spoke his pulled her over his lap so she was sitting other side of him away from Ayako. Mai felt her face heat up at the mental image of being fed by Naru.

He deposited a plate of scones, cream and jam in front of her and poured out her tea for her. He put the other plate in front of himself.

"What did you order? It was too fast for me to catch it."

"Crumpets," was the mysterious answer.

From across the way she could hear Ayako ordering cinnamon toast and tea. Her loud voice was still exactly the same. She allowed herself to feel a small amount of nostalgia upon hearing it. Ayako had been like a loving yet occasionally blunt talking aunt to her and the monk had been like an embarrassing uncle.

"How did Masako-chan describe Ayako?" she asked to distract herself from all of the memories.

Naru smirked. "As you can guess because it's Hara-san, it wasn't flattering. A loud mouth dyed redhead with too much makeup to be a priestess."

That sounded exactly like Masako. She was always cutting and to the point. Despite all of that, Mai did miss her sometimes. They had become friends in the end.

"That's so Masako."

"She was mostly nice to me," Naru retorted. "Don't be worried, her feelings were not returned."

It sounded like Masako had harboured a crush on Naru in the past. She turned to look at Naru with wide eyes.

"Did Masako have a thing for you?"

It was the first time she saw her employer look faintly embarrassed.

"She did. I think she liked me as Oliver Davis more than she liked me. I didn't pick up on it, other people alerted me to it and I had to awkwardly tell her that I wasn't interested in her.

Mai could imagine that in her head. If she did remember correctly in a disagreement with Bou-san, Masako had claimed to have met Oliver Davis in person. They had all assumed she was lying. Well, now she knew it had been true.

"I like you as narcissistic Naru-chan," she said without thinking. "I don't care if you are famous or not."

She hadn't been anticipating his reaction. He dropped his crumpet and his ears turned red. Was that a blush she could see?

"…Thank you for that," he said softly. "It's nice to hear it. I like being Naru instead of Oliver Davis as well."

Mai smiled widely, completely forgetting that she had been scared of Ayako seeing her minutes ago.

"Anytime."

Naru picked up his crumpet again and Mai resumed eating her scone. They ate in a companionable silence for a while.

"Its past 3 o'clock now," he observed. "Lin hasn't called me yet so everything must be okay."

"Should we go?"

Ayako hadn't left yet so they would have to manoeuvre carefully. Naru paid the bill whilst Mai tried to stretch her coat collar to cover her face. It wasn't working. She would just have to hope that Ayako wouldn't recognise her from behind.

Naru took her hand as they walked away and Mai felt reassured by it. He let go once they reached the end of the street and she couldn't help feel a little disappointed.

"Lin says it's fine to come back," Naru said. "She recognised you by the way."

Mai froze. There had been no sign that Ayako had noticed her.

"That's why I held your hand. I thought she might not bother you if she thought you had a boyfriend."

Now it made sense. Ayako had assumed she had moved on from everything and had found love. Instead she hadn't. However she was improving by embracing her abilities again instead of fearing them.

"I see," she tried to think of something to make it less awkward. "How did Masako-chan describe me?"

A faint smile tugged at Naru's lips.

"Her description turned out to be right," was all he said.

She could tell that Naru didn't want to tell her. Imagining how Masako described her was hard.

"Will you tell me when everything is over?"

"Of course," he answered. "I also have something else to tell you then."

It was probably about his brother.

* * *

Lin was waiting in the entryway of Naru's apartment for them. His face was expressionless as usual and he was holding glass shards in his hand.

"It did happen," he said and showed them.

The glass cabinet was lying on the floor with shards of glass surrounding it. Unlike her dream there was no dead Naru and a pool of blood.

"Did you get any data on the spirit?" He asked.

Lin brought over his laptop.

"The temperature dropped completely, there was a little noise for the EVP recording and something was caught on the video."

He played it for them and paused it on a certain frame. Mai leaned closer to see what was significant about it.

"That's Yoko," Mai said.


	12. Chapter 12

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 12:**

"Are you positive?" Lin asked.

In the image the spirit had wild hair unlike the neatly primped Yoko that Mai had seen in the past and her eyes were slitted with hatred, but she could still tell it was her.

"She isn't very strong," Naru noted. "She flickers in and out and only appears for a few seconds."

Lin appeared to disagree. "She's strong enough to permanently curse your family."

Mai decided it was time to add her input.

"I would say she is in the middle. Although Naru wasn't here, the cabinet still fell and that car accident still happened despite him not anywhere near it."

They both turned to look at her.

"You're right, she can't adapt to unpredicted events," the narcissist said. "She also favours two methods of murder."

Mai was feeling a little left out. She had no idea how the other Shibuyas had died. If she remembered correctly Naru said his parents had died in a car accident. That could be one of them.

"For Mai's benefit, it's car accidents and being crushed by heavy objects," Naru added helpfully.

"I understand now. So are we saying that she is weaker than she appears?"

Naru glanced at her thoughtfully.

"How tired are you?" he asked.

It wasn't hard to see what he was implying. He wanted her to go into the past in her dream.

"It has been a stressful morning, I might fall asleep eventually if I lay down," she answered. "Should I try now?"

Mai changed into her pyjama bottoms but left the shirt she had been wearing all day on and lay down in bed.

"You can come in now," she announced.

Naru came and sat down by her bed. Whilst she didn't really need him to help her dream anymore, it was reassuring to have someone else in the room with her that could pull her out if it got scary. She closed her eyes and snuggled up in her duvet.

Five minutes passed and she still wasn't asleep. She groaned, she had primed herself over the years to not sleep in the day because she had a full time job and couldn't risk falling asleep at her desk. She had sometimes fallen asleep on cases and been teased by everyone for it.

Naru got up and closed the curtains. "Is this better?"

"A little," Mai mumbled and concentrated on the thought of dream Naru. Was he really Naru?

It appeared that thinking of dream Naru pulled her into a dream with that particular Naru in. He was there waiting for her with a smile.

"It's been a while," he said. "What do you want to dream of now?"

Mai realised that she wasn't sure. They wanted to know what had happened between Yoko and Kogoro as well as how she had cursed him. Which should she go for?"

"I want to know about the curse," she requested.

Naru watched Mai's breathing change and her facial expression soften from a frown. She was asleep now. It gave him time to think about her.

He couldn't quite believe what had happened at the café. He had half hugged her and held her hand. It was disconcerting for him. He had been able to tell how panicked she was at the sight of one of her old co workers so he had had a desire to help her.

Helping her had entailed more contact than he had ever had with a girl. Losing his twin had given him other life experiences and he felt conflicted because of that.

Her suggestion from previous day came into mind. He had used his psychometry to see Gene's death and he knew that Gene had never seen anything coming besides the car. Naru partially blamed himself for it.

The day it had happened had been a day that he urgently required Lin's presence on a case up country. If Lin had been at the office in London his shikigami would have been able to sense a malevolent spirit and Gene might still be alive.

His sensible side reminded him that even if Lin had been there, he probably couldn't have done much to save Gene. He hated the curse.

His intent was to completely destroy the curse instead of just having Mai predict when he was going to have an attempt on his life. He probably was going to be the only Shibuya with the means to destroy the curse in any case.

The responsibility rested on his shoulders. He had also promised his parents that he wouldn't come home until he had destroyed the curse. They hadn't been happy with that, but they had given their support and resources in the end.

Did he miss them? It was hard to tell. He was solely thinking of Gene and the curse most of the time and occasionally Mai. He didn't want his mother anywhere near Mai anyway, she would get the completely wrong idea.

With that in mind he looked down at Mai again to check on her and saw that her eyes were opening. He gave her a moment to orientate herself before he asked anything.

"What did you see?"

Mai rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and yawned.

"Someone came to see Yoko and suggested the curse to her. She had a strand of Kogoro's hair and a candle and was chanting. Is that enough to go on yet?"

If she was anyone else he would have coldly replied to her. Because it was Mai he was a little kinder.

"No. It's very generic. Although I must confess that curses are not my strongest area. Usually I get assistance from curse experts on cases."

Could they bypass knowing how the curse was made and focus on destroying it? It was worth a try. He didn't have enough information to come to a conclusion on the mechanics of the curse.

"Did you see what the person looked like?"

An additional person behind the curse did put a new light on matters. It also made it harder.

"Their face was covered, but from their conversation I could gather that she was a previous mistress of Kogoro and wanted to help Yoko out."

It sounded like his ancestor had really got around with the females. It was mortifying to think about.

"She had asked Yoko to obtain hair from Kogoro and his two children," Mai continued on. "I can remember more now that I'm properly awake. Yoko had them on the table and she was told to burn them and place them in a talisman and to hide that talisman with the Shibuyas. There was also a wooden flat thing shaped like a person. Apparently it would strengthen the curse if the talisman was in the vicinity with them."

That explained something he had been wondering about for a while.

"That's why the curse took so long to spread to us, the talisman has to be in Japan."

"Us?" Mai asked innocently.

"It doesn't matter," Naru said and rushed out the room to tell Lin.

Lin was sipping tea at the kitchen table whilst reading something on his laptop. He looked surprised to see his charge actually running.

"Lin, are there any suspicious looking objects in the Shibuya collection? One of the could be the source for the curse."

Fortunately Lin caught on quickly to his meaning and went through his database of the Shibuya collection. He and Naru had catalogued everything they had found from the other Shibuya family members.

"We have borrowed most of the documents that are owned by living family members. As for actual objects I didn't pay much attention because it wasn't important at the time. There is some jewellery, some hand carved figures, some children's toys and some paintings. The paintings can be eliminated because they were mostly recent additions," he explained. "The oldest are a couple of the necklaces and the figures."

Either of those sounded like possible starters to Naru.

"Can you get hold of those as quickly as you can?" Naru requested.

* * *

The omnouji was able to obtain the items by midday the next day so they sat around the table unpacking the objects.

"Is it dangerous for Naru to be this close to a cursed object?" Mai asked worriedly.

Lin grimaced. "Under normal circumstances I wouldn't let him anywhere near them, but we've established that the curse attacks him on certain days. Today is not one of those days."

The brunette breathed a sigh of relief. Naru ignored both of them and focused on unwrapping one of the figurines.

"These figures aren't exactly attractive, are they?" Mai asked.

Some of the figures were crude representations of animals and others there had more human features. A few were wooden carved figures and the others were clay.

"I'm going to assume that they were kept because someone thought they would be valuable on the antique market," Naru commented dryly. "The jewellery is probably just as bad."

The jewellery turned out to be very simple in design with coloured cord and a few carved wooden charms attached. Mai didn't think that they could contain anything that would be related to the curse.

"I think we need to have a closer look at the clay figures. If any of them are going to have something inside it's going to be them," Naru said.

Mai picked up one and turned it over to look for a hole. All of the sides were flush and smooth. She also shook it to hear if it was hollow inside.

"Can we smash them to check?" she asked hopefully.

"For everyone's safety, no," Naru said. "…I think this one is it. If tap on it, it sounds hollow."

He demonstrated for them and Lin and Mai came to look closer. He smoothly turned it over to look for a hole. Sadly there wasn't one, but Mai noticed something about the statue with an ugly human face.

"Look at the eyes, they are a slightly different colour," she pointed.

Lin picked it up and gingerly touched the eyes. "The eyes have been filled with wax that has discoloured alongside the clay over the years. This could be it."

"If we destroy it, is the curse also destroyed?" Mai enquired. It sounded too easy.

"We just destroy its physical state if we burn it. It needs something else," Lin said. "It could be cleansed, blessed or destroyed spiritually and physically. There is always a chance that Yoko can materialise here without the talisman as well or that destroying the talisman will change the way the curse works. To put it simply, I don't know what will happen if we try to destroy it now and I refuse to risk it."

Mai wondered how the figure had become part of the Shibuya family's possessions. It matched slightly with some of the other figurines. Perhaps Yoko had left the figure in Kogoro's family house and no one had noticed its addition to the collection.

She was also unsure of what she could do to help them. In the past Bou-san would have gone at it with his tokkosho and John would have got out the holy water. She reminded herself that they were never the target of the curse, this curse could kill Naru if they got it wrong.

Naru was silent for a minute or so. "I think there will be hair and wax inside. The hair will belong to Kogoro and his children. There could be a hitogata in there for good measure as well. I can destroy those myself."

Lin glared at him ferociously. "Don't you dare, Noll."

Yet again Mai felt like she was missing something important between them. She did have an idea as to how Naru knew what was in there though.

"Did you use your psychometry?" she asked.

Naru appeared to appreciate the diversion from his staring contest with Lin.

"I did. This is strongly linked with Yoko. She put those objects in and sealed it up with more wax and placed it with the matching ones at Shibuyas house. Then she drowned herself in the river."

Mai hadn't been expecting that part. If she had given her life for the curse, she must have seen her life as nothing. It was sad to think about.

"What can you do about it?"

Naru sighed. "We've got to the point where we can't go any further without asking for help. We need to consult some people that know more about curses than us and can actually exorcise violent spirits."

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter has what some people have been waiting for: the appearance of the other Ghost Hunt characters.**

 **I apologise for the two week gap between this chapter and that last one, I had a lot to sort out. I received my results this week and I have a First for my university degree - this is the highest grade you can get in the UK.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 13:**

The meaning of Naru's speech wasn't lost on Mai. She had caught his point. The time to contact Bou-san and the others had come. She knew that they had done all they could between the three of them.

"I am absolutely fine with you asking other people for help," she said calmly.

Lin had a different concern.

"Are you going to tell them _everything_? Are you going tell them you are Oliver Davis?"

Naru glanced at Mai. "Mai told us that one of them is an Oliver Davis superfan so I don't really want to. I hate people trying to suck up to me."

Considering that he was a narcissist Mai thought that he would enjoy people like that. Perhaps he only liked people complimenting his physical looks.

"I approve of that, for your safety of course," Lin said. "Does Taniyama-san want to not be part of the case anymore? She had helped us a lot."

The answer came easy to Mai. She wanted to stay to be aware of everything that was going on. Additionally she knew the time had come to see everyone again. She was in control of her abilities thanks to Naru's help and was comfortable with her dreams again.

"Of course I am going to stay," she assured him. "I have decided I am fine with meeting them all again."

Naru gave her a look of approval and Mai smiled back. She could do it.

"Now that's agreed, I will start phoning now."

He disappeared into his bedroom again and Mai caught a flash of the photo that she had seen before. That reminded her of his narcissism. She turned to Lin.

"Is Naru really so narcissistic that he has a photo of himself in his bedroom?"

Her sharp eyes didn't miss the way that Lin froze up and his eyes snapped in the direction of Naru's closed bedroom door. He opened his mouth to speak and paused.

"… Taniyama-san, I'm not able to pass a comment about it yet. When it's all over, you can bring it up with Noll. He will tell you everything then."

This was even more confusing to Mai. She knew about Eugene Davis being dead so she knew one thing that Naru and Lin were keeping from her. What was really significant about Naru having a photo of himself. Even she had photos of herself around her apartment, although they were mostly old family photos and a few of her with her friends. Her photos with her investigation team were in a photo album in a locked drawer.

"I see," she said.

Half an hour later Naru emerged from his room to announce the results of the phone calls. Mai and Lin were sat next to each other with cups of tea and were somewhat awkwardly discussing similarities between cases they had been on. The main reasons for the awkwardness were that Lin was unaccustomed to talking for an extended period of time and Mai was having to remember cases that she had wanted to forget.

"They will take the case on. I didn't say I was Oliver Davis. I said I had one ability and I was friends with an omnouji."

His use of 'they' had to mean that the monk, Ayako, John, Masako and Yasuhara were all still working together as a team. She hadn't been sure of that before as their contact numbers had all been separate.

"Good. When we they going to start?" Lin asked.

"The five of them are coming here tomorrow morning," Naru answered. "I hate having strange people in my apartment, but I will have to live with it because they don't have an office."

Mai blinked. Naru had invited her to live with him very quickly. She must be an exception.

* * *

Naru didn't join her in her bedroom that night as he was busy preparing for the arrival of the other investigators so Mai fell asleep unaccompanied with no one to wake her up. She was surprised to find dream Naru waiting for her yet again. She had thought she would only see him if Naru had told her what to dream.

"Hello, Mai," he said. "Is there anything you want to know?"

Mai hesitated. Naru hadn't told her that he needed her to have a dream tonight. They had established the patterns of the attacks and the following day wasn't one of those days. She took a deep breath and it all came tumbling out.

"I'm seeing people tomorrow that I have been avoiding for 5 years and I think I am ready but I am still feeling apprehensive."

Dream Naru nodded safely.

"I understand. May I know what happened to make you avoid them?"

That was a little unprecedented. Naru had said that he didn't need to know the details. Maybe the dream version that she had created of him was more inhibited.

"I used to use my dreams for cases. I couldn't really control them properly and I started to have prophetic dreams outside of my cases. I saved a cat from being run over and avoided a couple of accidents because of them, then I started to dream of things that were going to happen to other people around me. I knew that one of my friends was going to fail a test so I made her revise more than usual."

She cringed at what she had just remembered. At first it hadn't been too bad and she had been happy to help other people out.

"The school president was my boyfriend and he was very popular so he was always surrounded by people. I dreamt that he was going to fall down the stairs at school and break his neck," she fought back the tears. "I was so distressed by it that I ran all the way to school and burst into his homeroom class. Unfortunately most of the students were already there and they heard me warn him about the stairs."

It felt relieving to finally tell someone else everything. He would understand. She had kept details back when she had told her friends so it was all the more beneficial to tell someone in a dream everything that had happened.

"He still fell down the stairs that day, but he only got bruises. The sad thing was that people saw it and connected it with what they had heard me say. The rumour passed very quickly around school and everyone knew about it."

"Did you get bullied?" Dream Naru asked softly.

Mai shook her head. "Not really. People would give me strange looks and whisper things. Other people begged me to tell them their future or for the answers to tests. The rumour also got out of hand by the end of the week. The teachers also started to treat me strangely."

She sighed. As difficult as it had been to recall it, she had found it easier to go through her memories this time because it was further in the past and she had found a way to deal with everything now.

"I didn't get any sleep that week. I took caffeine pills to keep me awake. I couldn't risk having a dream, I would never want to go to school. That week was the third hardest period of my life. I was lucky the following week though. We had a case so I didn't have to go to school."

"I am going to guess that something happened on that case to make you want to quit," dream Naru theorised, sounding very close to his non dream self.

"I had an absolutely horrifying dream and I felt trapped in it. Ayako was the one that woke me up by slapping me. It was then that I knew that I didn't want to do it anymore. They all said they understood, but I couldn't help but feel that I had let them down and they were disappointed in me. I broke up with my boyfriend then. I stayed off school for another fortnight and when I returned the rumours had died down. I still suspect that my former boyfriend had told everyone to stop. I cut off all contact with them because I was never going to be of any use to them again."

"Thank you for confiding in me," dream Naru told her with a smile. "I promise that I will never tell anyone."

He held out his shortest finger and Mai joined it with hers. It was strange to see Naru do a pinky promise.

"Thank you for listening and understanding, Naru," she said in return,

Dream Naru's smile faded. "My name isn't Naru."

"Eh?"

"Make sure to tell Naru what you told me some time," he called out as she faded away into another dream.

* * *

Instead of waking up naturally like she had become accustomed to, she was woken up by Naru calling her name.

"Mai, you have one hour before your former acquaintances arrive," he said once she had opened her eyes.

She grumbled sleepily and sat bolt upright when she remembered something.

"Naru, I had a dream about Yoko."

Her employer looked immediately interested.

"Yes?"

"Her child that she had was born dead. When she went to find a doctor, she found that he was helping Kogoro's wife give birth. That's when she realised he was married and didn't love her," she said. That was the dream she had had after leaving dream Naru who wasn't called Naru.

Well, Naru wasn't exactly Naru's real name either. Maybe his dream version didn't like the nickname? She didn't have time to mull over that because she had to prepare for everyone's arrival.

"What's the cover story?" she asked over breakfast.

Naru and Lin had already eaten but were sat with her anyway arranging all of the documents.

"I am Kazuya Shibuya and Lin is my assistant that lives next door. He is an omnouji I hired to help me and you are also another person I hired to help. I found you through investigating the Taniyama family."

To be honest Mai had almost completely forgotten about the arranged marriage. She wondered if Naru would still refuse to marry her if he was asked again.

"I guess Masako can partially corroborate that version," she replied.

"I requested that Hara-san keep my identity secret," Naru added.

Mai paused eating when she realised that there was a flaw in his cover story.

"Ayako thinks we are going out."

Lin looked completely confused and Naru grimaced.

"You were ill that day so I supported you and she was mistaken about our relationship," Naru said after a moment of awkward silence.

"I think I missing out on something here," Lin said.

"It doesn't matter," Mai said hastily. "Naru was trying to help me out."

She and Naru awkwardly met eyes and Naru swiftly changed the subject.

"In any case, do not reveal anything about my identity. Fortunately the name Shibuya isn't connected with the Davis name so there should not be any suspicion. I've tidied away anything that had my English name on so I should be fine."

"I hope they are as good as their reviews on the website say," Lin said.

Mai was intrigued by the idea of them having a website together. Lin showed her the review section of the nondescript website. One mentioned that there was a priestess that claimed right until the end that it was a land bound spirit and the monk had a ponytail. It seemed like they had not really changed at all since she had last seen them.

Another one mentioned how haughty Masako Hara was and how adorable the priest was. That was definitely John. She remembered her phone call to him and inwardly sighed. He was probably going to want to know the reason behind that call. Then she saw a line about the researcher flirting with the reviewer and frowned.

It was going to be a little awkward seeing her ex boyfriend again. When they had broken up, she had only seen him in passing around school due to their different year groups and the fact that he was doing his exams.

"Are you feeling all right?" Lin enquired. "You look nervous."

She could feel Naru's watchful eyes on her.

"I'm fine. Should I make tea for them?" she asked to distract them.

A glance up at the clock showed that there was ten minutes before they arrived and her stomach turned over.

"You can make some for me," Naru answered. "I'm not offering them my tea until I'm satisfied that they can actually do the job."

That made Mai think of his tea from the other night. She was worthy of his tea then. When she emerged from the kitchen with the tea she found Naru sitting on the sofa with his notebook open. She handed the teacup over and he gestured for her to sit down next to him.

"You can sit here."

Mai awkwardly sat down next to him. They hadn't been this close since the café the day before. It was reassuring to breathe in the smell of tea and forget what was about to happen. Naru's hand touched hers and she blushed, completely forgetting everything temporarily. She looked at him and his eyes were staring straight ahead, but his hand was still touching hers.

Then the doorbell rang and punctuated the calm atmosphere. However Naru didn't move his hand.

* * *

 **A/N: I got my chapter order slightly mixed up so this chapter is the introduction rather than appearance of the other Ghost Hunt characters. I apologise for confusing myself and being misleading.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 14:**

Lin went to let them in and Mai's heartbeat sped up again. Her agitation did not go unnoticed by Naru as he leaned in closer and whispered in her ear.

"You know I can just tell them to shut up if they bother you. They will have to do as I say because I am paying them. Most people do what I say."

Mai knew that was a Naru attempt at reassuring her. If it was anyone else she would have not believed it, but she could tell that Naru was used to telling people what to do. She heard Yasuhara's voice and she clutched at his hand by accident. Her employer stiffened and then gently let go of her hand.

"I need to look imposing," he murmured.

Luckily Mai understood that holding hands wasn't the best first impression for someone that wanted to look imposing so she sat up and nervously smiled at him. Naru was glad that Mai was understanding of him. Anyone else would have taken offence.

The first person that he saw was obviously the monk as he was aware that he had a ponytail. He was fortunate that he had heard about it from Mai and Masako Hara before otherwise he would have thought he was the researcher. He was followed by the redhead priestess that he had seen before and the catholic priest. Behind him was Masako Hara who curtly nodded at him and a man with brown hair and glasses.

They were the most unlikely group of ghost hunters that Naru had ever seen. Granted, there was a monk, a priestess, a priest, psychic and researcher, but their appearances apart from John Brown didn't really fit with their occupations. He wondered how Mai had felt being part of the group. There was already a psychic there, perhaps that was why she had left.

He saw their eyes zero in on Mai next to him and he cleared his threat and stood up to divert their attention.

"I am Kazuya Shibuya and the man that let you in is Koujo Lin, an omnouji I hired as my assistant," he announced. "This is Mai Taniyama who is someone else I hired to help me."

An awkward silence followed the introduction and he could see their attention was still fixed on Mai who was looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Stop making my assistant feel uncomfortable and introduce yourselves before I reconsider everything," he ordered.

The monk who appeared to be the leader of the group was the first to obey.

"I am Houshou Takigawa, the red haired old lady over there is our priestess Ayako Matsuzaki, I assume you can recognise Masako Hara. The blonde is our priest John Brown and the one in glasses is Osamu Yasuhara, our researcher."

Naru bowed his head and gestured for them to sit down. He could see their eyes kept diverting to Mai as he sat down next to her again.

"I gave you a brief summary of the case by phone so I don't have to spend time explaining again," he started.

"You're cursed to die before you are 25, you have found the source of the curse and only want us to exorcise it," the priestess answered. "I was going to ask how you worked out the person behind the curse, but the answer is clear now that I know who you have employed."

Naru was thankful that she had not mentioned the mildly romantic scene she had witnessed two days ago. Of course he turned out to be too quick in thinking that.

"I got the impression that you two were romantically involved," she added.

The brown haired researcher had the strangest reaction. Of course Masako Hara's eyes narrowed at him, that wasn't unprecedented considering her crush on him. Yasuhara looked sharply at Mai and then his gaze went to the floor.

"We are not. You merely misunderstood, Mai was ill that day," he lied smoothly. "For professionalism, I suggest that we stay on the subject of the case."

"May I see the cursed object?" the priest asked politely. Naru approved of him for getting to business and for his manners.

He nodded at Lin and the omnouji retrieved the object and gave it to John.

"How do you know what is in there?" the monk asked.

"I can perform psychometry to a certain degree," Oliver Davis answered. "What I don't know is how to completely destroy it."

Bou-san examined the eyes and sighed.

"All we can try for now is exorcisms. Ayako, John and myself are the exorcists of this group. We can set up wards to contain the spirit."

"She's certainly a vengeful one," Ayako commented. "Your ancestor really annoyed her."

The priestess had a point there. A more rational person would have just cursed the source of the annoyance, not their entire future family line.

"According to information from my assistant, Yoko was not the most rational person or the smartest which is what makes her more dangerous."

"How did you meet your assistant?" Yasuhara asked.

Naru bristled. "That is confidential and irrelevant. The pattern of attacks means that I will have an attempt on my life tomorrow so it would be appreciated if you could start now."

Lin provided a useful interruption. "As was discussed before, I have the video, temperature and EVP recordings and all the case notes here on my laptop for your viewing."

The group reviewed everything within half an hour with occasional comments from Ayako expressing disappointment that it wasn't a site bound ghost. When they had finished they began discussing exorcisms.

"Who should go first this time?" Bou-san asked.

It suggested that their exorcisms often took several attempts which was mildly concerning. He turned to Mai who would answer him honestly.

"How effective are their exorcisms?" he whispered in her ear.

"They work half the time. It depends on how hard the case is," she hissed back.

Naru did have a Plan B if the investigation group proved to be a waste of time. He was aware that his PK would be able to destroy the cursed figurine. The only issue with that idea was that he would probably die in the progress because his PK partner was dead. It was a very last resort.

He had no intention of dying for the curse. His death would upset Mai, Lin and his parents who had already lost one child.

He watched critically as the three of them played rock, paper, scissors to decide who went first. The redhead priestess won and left to change her clothes. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the atmosphere became strained and awkward.

Being someone that spent most of their time investigating, Naru had limited social skills and only talked when necessary. With Mai around he had started talking a little more because unlike Lin, she was easy to talk to. Due to Mai being completely silent, he had no real reason to talk.

Masako Hara was the first to break the ice.

"Mai-chan, I like your dress," she said. "It makes you look cute."

It didn't match with the Masako Hara that he knew, but he did appreciate that she was trying to talk to Mai without mentioning the past.

"Thank you, Masako-chan," Mai replied. "I like your kimono as well."

Their conversation continued down the same line until the priestess returned dressed in red and white robes. In the time that she had been absent, Naru knew where Mai and Masako bought clothes and that the other four males in the room were very quiet whilst girl talk was ongoing.

Ayako picked up the figure and set up in the corner of the room that was now empty due to the glass cabinet being removed. Naru didn't see anything occur after her exorcism and he concluded that it was ineffective.

He turned to the monk and John.

"Who is going next?" he asked with a critical tone to his voice.

"I will go next," John said after a moment of very awkward silence.

His exorcism was also not successful so they regrouped together to discuss alternatives. Naru made sure that Mai sat in between him and Lin to keep her from feeling uncomfortable. He had detected the signs of the brown haired researcher trying to get close to her.

Masako coughed primly. "I think you are all approaching this exorcism incorrectly. The spirit isn't here, you need to do it when she is directly linked to that figurine."

"You could have mentioned that before," Ayako complained.

"It was obvious," Masako shot back.

Naru felt a headache developing. They were exhausting to listen to, but Masako had made a good point. They needed to have Yoko there to exorcise along with the figurine.

"There is an attack due tomorrow," he reminded them. "Please formulate a plan before then that will actually work."

"Shibuya-san, do you have any suggestions?" Yasuhara enquired.

"If I knew what to do, I wouldn't have hired you," Naru answered dryly. "I have told you all that we have found out so we are on even footing."

Eventually it was agreed between them that a forceful exorcism would be for the best as there was no definite way to peacefully convince Yoko to undo the curse. Naru was to communicate them the time and the place that the attack would take place and they would meet there at the right time and exorcise when Masako sensed her.

When they all finally filed out of the apartment Naru breathed a sigh of relief. It had been exhausting talking to the five of them as they never seemed to agree on anything. Yasuhara had been shooting him strange looks and Mai had been silent. John and the monk were probably the most rational members of the group.

"How did you ever work with them?" he asked Mai.

Mai stretched out her arms and yawned. "They weren't that bad once we got to know each other. There was always a little bickering, but in the end we worked together. They were probably caught off guard by seeing me."

The awkwardness in the air had been so palpable it had left Naru wondering what had really happened between them and Mai. It was related to her abilities as he had watched their reactions whenever the past was mentioned. They seem surprised that she was dreaming again. Naru was beginning to get an idea of why Mai didn't work with them anymore.

"There were some cracks I could sense in their relationships," Lin contributed. "They all looked uncomfortable."

"I was surprised to find out that they still worked together," Mai said. "We didn't really have a leader so it was difficult to know whose instructions to follow. I think that you led them well."

Naru was mollified by the compliment and he took note of how tired she looked.

"Would you feel adverse to having a dream before dinner? I want to know about tomorrow. Don't worry about cooking, we can order something," he assured her. "I haven't had high grade sushi for a while anyway."

Mai smiled at him and bounded off happily to her bedroom. She was looking forward to having sushi for a change. It would also help keep her mind off things. It had been nice of Masako to try to talk to her, she really had appreciated it. Yasuhara had sent her and Naru so many puzzled looks, he didn't seem to believe that they were employee and employer.

It had been good to see them, to know that they were still well. At the same time the atmosphere had been stifling. She had never contacted them again because she had felt inadequate and unable to help them out. They had never tried contacting her either. She hadn't been sure if it was because they hadn't cared or because they wanted her to experience a normal life. Her poor self confidence had prevented her from asking.

Her phone buzzed and she realised it was John's number. He had obviously saved her number from when she had called him before. She picked it up hesitantly.

"Hello, Mai-san," he greeted. "I won't keep you for long. I just wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

Honestly there were lots of things he could ask her. She had a gut feeling as to what it was though.

"Is Kazuya Shibuya really Oliver Davis?"

She supposed it had been obvious. She had asked about Eugene Davis, his brother being dead. Naru's closest relations were all dead from the curse. It would have been clear to John who he was.

"That's for him to say," she answered cautiously. She didn't want to betray him.

"I understand," John said. "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

She was glad it was John that had worked it out. She dreaded Ayako or Yasuhara finding out. She settled on top of her bedcovers and closed her eyes. It had been a long day and very stressful. Her limbs felt heavy and she fell into the dream she wanted.

When Naru came into her room to let her know that the delivery had arrived, she was able to tell him how he was supposed to die the next day.

"Naru, a pole from a construction site will fall onto you tomorrow in the street," she informed him and gave him the name of the street and the time.

"It all ends tomorrow," he stated. "I have something to tell you in case I die tomorrow."


	15. Chapter 15

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 15:**

Mai waited with bated breath to hear what Naru was going to tell her. She highly doubted that he was going to confess his undying love to her although the thought made her blush and she wasn't sure why. It had to be something more relevant to the current situation. She had a suspicion as to what it could be.

Naru took a deep breath.

"When I lived in England, I wasn't the first Shibuya to be the victim of the curse. My twin Eugene was targeted first."

It was exactly as she had thought. The only thing she hadn't known was that Eugene had been his twin.

"…He was hit by a car and the circumstances were highly suspicious. It couldn't have been an accident. I used my psychometry on one of his shirts and I felt his death. The car went straight for him intentionally, but the person driving the car had no connection to him at all."

That was why he had reacted so strangely when she had mentioned mediums and psychometry. He had seen his twin's death through it and had known that there wasn't anything to be gained from it.

"I was suspicious, but I had nothing really to go on. Then shortly after the same thing nearly happened to me, Lin pulled me out the way just in time. That was when I started to suspect a curse and contacted distant relations in Japan. We moved here a little while after to collect more information about the curse. Along the way we found out about you and here we are. The curse should end tomorrow."

Mai could see how hard it had been for Naru to tell her everything and she could understand why. To tell someone that you had experienced your twin's death could make them pity you and Naru wasn't the type of the person that enjoyed being pitied.

"Thank you for telling me," she answered gently.

"I wanted you to know everything. You've probably wondered about my behaviour and what Lin and I talk about."

He stood up to go and Mai reached out and grabbed his hand without thinking about it. She flushed when Naru turned back to face her and she realised what he had done.

"What is it?"

He was looking at her questioningly. It was now or never.

"…It's only fair that I tell you my secret now that you have told me yours," she blurted out before she could back out. Telling dream Naru had been much easier.

Naru sat down on her bed and kept hold of her hand.

"It would be lying to say that I wasn't curious, but I wanted to respect your privacy."

It reminded Mai that she had technically invaded his privacy by asking John about Eugene Davis. It was only fair that she told him everything in return.

She related her story to him and Naru stayed silent throughout the entire length, but didn't let go of her hand.

"That's why it was so awkward today when I saw them," she finished off.

Naru sighed and Mai wasn't sure why. Was it because he thought she had over reacted the whole time?

"When my abilities became apparent, I was more fortunate than you to a degree. I lacked control, however I was taken care of much better and was able to learn how to master it. My abilities have also been appreciated by lots of people and I have gained positive attention from them. Your case was sadly the opposite."

Mai was able to appreciate the alternative perspective. If she had been born in a more accepting country, everything might have turned out differently.

"You have a powerful ability, but you have never been taught properly how to use it. Of course it was not going to end well. Those people you worked with should have seen it coming and taken you to see someone," Naru griped.

It was nice to see Naru get annoyed with someone on her behalf. She knew he was right. Ayako and Bou-san had been lacking perspective when it came to her dreams. Masako had suggested seeing someone once, but she had said it such a bitchy way that everyone had been against it. It was strange to think that Masako had been the most sensible one.

"It's in the past now and I think I have control over it now. When the curse has gone, I should be able to stop dreaming of the future. It's horrible to know what is going to happen," Mai sighed. "It's also hard to change it."

"Will you want to work with your former friends after?" Naru questioned.

It was an important question for Mai. She had control now, there was nothing stopping her from working with them again. She had also overcome the hardest hurdle of seeing them again.

"Perhaps I will," was all she said. "I can't say it paid too well though."

Naru nodded in agreement. "Unless you work for a large organisation like SPR, you really can't earn a lot through ghost hunting unless you get lucky with a very wealthy client."

After that they came out of her room and sat down with sushi together. Mai was finally able to tell Naru about some of the major cases she had been on and Naru shared his stories that involved his twin. Lin sat at the far end of the table with his headphones on typing on his laptop so it was easy to forget he was there.

"This angry spirit came rushing towards me and then Bou-san slapped an ofuda on it just in time. After that he and Ayako taught me a couple of things to defend myself. I can still remember the Nine Cuts."

Naru looked intrigued. "I've heard of that and seen footage, but I've never seen it in real life. It's not the most effective method though."

Mai picked up the last of her sushi roll with her chopsticks. It had been the most luxurious sushi she had ever had. She was going to miss living with Naru and it probably wasn't anything to do with the softer bed and better food. It was nice to not feel lonely all the time.

"It's not the most effective method," she agreed. "It does buy you some time to run and find someone that can exorcise."

Lin took his headphones off and cleared his throat.

"I am very sorry to disturb your conversation, but we do need to discuss something important."

Mai sat up straighter and tried to look alert. Naru simply put his chopsticks down and turned to look at Lin.

"What is the plan?"

* * *

Naru cast a sceptical glance at the assembled group in front of him. He now knew a lot about them from anecdotes courtesy of Mai, but he couldn't help feeling apprehensive leaving his life to them. He consoled himself by reminding himself that he could just run away if it was getting too dangerous. Blasting the spirit with PK was not an option unless he wanted his heart to stop.

The priestess was holding the figurine and Bou-san was carrying his tokkosho. It was highly fortunate that they were on a quiet street that didn't have any CCTV to catch them because they were going to look somewhat strange. The building site was currently empty as all of the builders were on a lunch break.

Yasuhara was a few metres away persuading any approaching person to take another route. Naru didn't like the idea of doing the exorcism in a public place, but it was their best shot to get Yoko now.

He checked his watch and stood in position. The main idea was to destroy the figurine whilst Yoko was there to weaken the curse and remove the source at the same time. Lin had a backup plan if the exorcism failed.

"Good luck," Mai called out to him ten seconds before the scaffolding pole was due to fall on him. He appreciated the consideration on her part. Not that he needed luck though.

He looked up at saw the pole roll to the edge off the scaffolding. Was this how Gene had felt when he saw the car about to run him over? He ran for cover just in time to see the pole crash into the ground where he had just been standing.

"I can feel a spirit here," Masako shouted. "Do it now!"

Their window of opportunity was completely unknown due to the lack of data. Yoko had only appeared for a few seconds before which could have been because her target hadn't actually been present where he had supposed to be and it was pointless staying. This time Naru was standing very close to where he should have died.

"I can see her," Mai shouted. "Do it now!"

As soon as she shouted Bou-san and Ayako started chanting and John flung his holy water over the broken figurine. Mai squinted her eyes to see if their attacks were having effect. Yoko flickered out of existence for a second and Mai relaxed. Then she came returned with a vengeance. Mai saw her eyes dart towards Naru and pulled him out of the way.

"It's not working and she's going for Naru now!"

Naru disengaged himself from her hand and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a wooden board shaped like a person. Mai suspected that it was a hitogata.

"It's okay. I will handle this," he told her and stepped away from her. "Yoko-san, you can have Kogoro Shibuya and leave his descendants alone. Killing them all not bring back your dead child."

He flung the hitogata in her direction and it produced a light that swallowed Yoko up. Mai watched carefully for any signs of a reappearance.

"She's gone," Masako announced to everyone's relief.

Mai wrapped her arms around Naru without thinking. "Thank goodness, you are all right!"

For a moment Naru froze and then squeezed her lightly. "There's no need to thank anything. I managed it myself."

"You knew what I meant," Mai grumbled.

Naru released her and she became aware that there were six pairs of eyes staring at her. One of which was her ex-boyfriend and another was someone that had formally had a crush on Naru. Bou-san smirked at her.

"I knew there was something that Naru-bou was keeping quiet."

"We are not in a relationship," Naru said tartly. "Considering that I exorcised the spirit myself, I don't really have to pay your fees."

That shut Bou-san up immediately and Ayako closed her mouth.

"Are you positive that the curse is gone?" John asked sensibly.

Naru's eyes flicked down to check the figurine. It was mostly destroyed apart from a few remnants of the carved clay. "If you burn the rest of that, I can be sure."

* * *

They adjourned to the café where Mai and Naru had encountered Ayako. The difference this time was that she wasn't hiding and she wasn't ashamed of her abilities. She could talk to everyone. It was going to be hard, but she could do it.

Bou-san made her sit next to him with Ayako on her other side and Naru opposite her. Annoyingly Masako had squeezed herself next to him and Yasuhara was sitting on his left so Mai ending up looking at him whenever she wanted to talk to Naru.

"How have you been for the past few years, Jou-chan?" Bou-san asked.

"Dreamless until the last fortnight," she answered truthfully.

"So you did end up using those sleeping pills I got for you," Ayako joined the conversation. "I hoped you used them responsibly."

"I did," Mai promised.

Bou-san offered her some of his cinnamon toast to try and Mai accepted it. Ayako also gave her samples of her food which caused Mai to reminisce a little over the mealtimes they had shared on cases.

"So, would you want to work with us again?" the monk asked casually.

Mai paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. She cast a glance at Naru and saw he was staring at her watchfully as was Yasuhara.

"I'm not sure," she said honestly. "You didn't show much teamwork when I saw you yesterday."

Bou-san was silenced. Mai resumed eating her cheesecake assuming that the conversation was over only to be interrupted by Yasuhara.

"We haven't had perfect teamwork since you left. We all blame ourselves for it," he said softly. "We would change if you came back."

Naru snorted and Yasuhara glared at him.

"Mai could work for me instead," Naru suggested. "Mai, would you want to?"

* * *

 **A/N: I graduated from university this week. As it turns out a mortar board is hard to keep straight on your head. On the positive side I managed not to trip up in front of everyone.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Destined Ties:**

 **Chapter 16:**

A stunned silence met his words. Lin's eyes were wide, Masako's mouth was open, Yasuhara's glasses had slipped down his nose. Bou-san and Ayako were sporting identical shocked faces. John was the only one to not look surprised.

"Would that be in England?" Mai asked carefully.

Naru looked like he was deep in thought before he answered. Mai was beginning to suspect that he had thought it up on the spot.

"…Japan seems to have a lot more spiritual activity than England. There would be a lot to do if we stayed here. I will talk to my parents about opening up a branch."

Lin looked like he was caught in between amusement and annoyance.

"Noll… you can't just say that just because you want Mai to stay close."

Naru's cheeks were flushed slightly as he replied. "I can do what I want, Lin. It would benefit SPR to have another branch. Think of all the new types of cases there could be."

"You can tell the professor that," Lin commented dryly.

Everyone else present aside from Mai and Masako were beginning to look very confused. Mai realised that Naru and Lin were giving themselves away with their conversation and she was about to interrupt when Bou-san spoke.

"Naru-bou, who are you really?"

Naru flinched and he shot the monk a forced smile.

"Kazuya Shibuya, nicknamed Naru by someone that thinks I am a narcissist."

The monk was not fooled in the slightest and Mai knew that he wasn't going to stop. Once Bou-san got hold of something, he didn't let it go.

"I know there is something secret that you haven't told us. Lin-san knows it and so does Jou-chan. I also picked up that Masako-san knew you before now. I think I know what it is as well."

The clues were now all out in the open, Mai realised. Lin was an omnouji, Masako had met lots of notorious people in the paranormal research world, Naru could perform psychometry and had connections to the Society for Psychical Research.

Naru ignored him in favour of a sip of tea. Mai waited for the inevitable to come. Bou-san had been such a fanboy of Oliver Davis, of course he wasn't going to stay silent now he had worked it out.

"You're Oliver Davis, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" was Naru's response. "Does it change anything?"

The monk paused for a second. "…Not really. I just want to know how Jou-chan got to meet Oliver Davis before me."

Naru didn't answer and Mai's face turned red. There was no way she was going to tell everyone how they had met. Lin wouldn't betray them either. She forgot that someone else present probably knew as well.

"Arranged marriage," Masako informed them causing another dead silence to fall.

Bou-san stood up, spilling his glass of water over the table.

"Jou-chan, are you married to Oliver Davis!?"

Ayako pulled the monk back down again and began mopping up the mess with napkins. Naru looked faintly embarrassed.

"Stop making a scene. Are you jealous of Mai or something?" the redhead demanded.

"No. I just don't want her to marry someone as cold as him," he answered.

Mai foresaw an argument based on all of her previous experience with the monk and priestess. She knew it didn't take much to generate an agreement between them. Deciding on what to have for lunch had been minor enough to cause one.

"Ayako, Bou-san, I am not married to Naru, neither am I planning to. We both don't like the idea of an arranged marriage," she explained calmly. "The only Shibuya to survive past 25 is one that was married to an ancestor of mine. His children died though so I am descended from her sister. He was able to survive because she could see the future."

Fortunately that calmed them down and allowed everyone to understand the situation. Bou-san appeared to be more annoyed that she hadn't told him that she was arranged to marry his icon.

Yasuhara cleared his throat once it was clear the monk was calm and the dust had settled.

"I'm more curious about how you exorcised Yoko. You obviously didn't trust them to exorcise properly so you made your own arrangements."

Naru took a sip of tea before answering. "I wasn't confident leaving my life in their hands. Neither was Lin although he could have stepped in with his Shiki to save me. However I wanted it to end today. The exorcism was actually useful because it meant that she came back here in a different way that allowed me to interact with her."

"How did you have enough information to make the hitogata?" John asked. "Kogoro's death date is a little unclear which is understandable considering the state of the records."

Naru nodded in Mai's direction. "Mai helped me with that and we came up with the plan between the three of us. It was intended as a back up plan first. You weren't completely useless, I also couldn't destroy the figurine by myself."

"Couldn't you use your PK?" Bou-san asked eagerly.

Naru averted his gaze. "I can't use my PK anymore. It will likely kill me."

* * *

Mai returned to the apartment later with Lin. Naru had stayed behind claiming that he wanted to be alone and they had left him there. She suspected that he was thinking about his brother again.

"Would you prefer to spend the night here or go home and pick up your things tomorrow?" Lin enquired.

It was strange to think that she was going to have to leave. The apartment already felt like home to her. There was someone to greet her in the morning and to have meals with. She was going to have to return to her solitary apartment.

"I'm quite tired so I will stay another night and pack tomorrow," she replied.

Lin left after that which left Mai alone in the apartment. She went to her bedroom and yawned. She was actually rather tired. The previous night had been eventful due to the hitogata making and the rest of the day had been exciting and now it had caught up with her.

She lay on top of her bedcovers without changing her clothes and promptly fell asleep. Her vision warped into the dreamscape where dream Naru was standing. This time he looked a lot more translucent than usual.

He was also slow to react to her sudden appearance.

"Mai! I've been hoping to see you," he exclaimed. "The curse has been destroyed, hasn't it?"

"It has," she confirmed with a smile.

He sighed in relief. "I've been worried that I would disappear before then and wouldn't be able to help you."

She noticed that he was now a shade more transparent and began to feel panic. Dream Naru couldn't disappear now. She needed him for reassurance.

"Mai, I need to tell you a few things before I have to go. You can control your dreams by yourself and live without fear of them," he informed her kindly. "You can do what you want with them and choose not to have them."

His hand began to disappear and he spoke faster.

"I'm not Naru. Remember that. We are different people. Tell him how you feel about him and not me," his voice became more panicked as the darkness started to swallow him up. "Thank you for saving him. Good bye."

That was the last thing he said he was completely consumed by the darkness leaving Mai alone again. Where had he gone?

She jolted awake with a gasp. Who was the person that she had come to refer to as dream Naru? He had said he wasn't Naru and it was true that he acted differently to him despite having his appearance. Perhaps he had simply been a manifestation of her desire to help Naru by having control over her dreams.

What had he meant by 'tell him how you feel'? Did she like Naru romantically? She considered it carefully.

He had been the one to draw her out of the world she had constructed for herself where she was pretending to be normal and was also running from her past. Now she had made amends with everyone that she had worked with and could live her life how she wanted. He had done her lots of favours along the way as well.

She smiled up at the ceiling when she thought of him hugging her back earlier on in the day. She did like him after all.

But did he like her back?

That caused her smile to change into a frown. He had hired her, made her breakfast, watched over her as she slept, comforted her after a nightmare, held her hand and hugged her back. Lin had also hinted about him being fond of her.

If she confessed, she had nothing really to lose. She had completed her role in protecting him and helping him destroy the curse.

The narcissist entered the key code to his apartment fully expecting to find it empty, dark and cold because Mai would have gone back to her real home. Instead the lights were on, it was warm and he could smell something. Unless his sense of smell was failing him, it smelled like apple crumble.

"Welcome back," Mai called out.

Naru relaxed and took off his shoes. He found Mai in the kitchen poring over a Pyrex dish of something. Naru leaned over her shoulder to have a look.

"Is that supposed to be apple crumble? It looks like an explosion," he commented and smirked when Mai flushed red.

"It's my first attempt," she protested. "I made it for you so you had better try it."

Dutifully Naru sat down at the table and waited for Mai to finish attempting to serve it in a bowl. Eventually he received a bowl of topping and apple that had separated. Mai sat opposite him with her own bowl.

"I made it for you because you said you missed it," she said.

Naru didn't know how to feel. He wasn't used to kindness from people other than his parents and Lin not having an ulterior motive behind it. He avoided thinking about it by trying a spoonful. It didn't taste like his mothers, but he hadn't expected it to. It was hard to replicate an English recipe in a different country with different forms of the ingredients.

"It's good," he said truthfully. "Thank you."

Mai's nervous frown burst into a beaming smile and Naru felt a smile forming in his own face. He couldn't help it. Mai's smile was infectious. He noticed that her nervous frown returned when he finished her bowl. There was something else bothering her.

"Are you all right?" he asked in concern.

"…I have something to confess to you," she said.

Perhaps she had accidentally smashed something when she had been cooking. He didn't particularly mind. His mind didn't equate 'confession' with anything romantic.

"…I like you," Mai said. "Romantically."

Naru was a little taken aback. He hadn't noticed any signs of affection from her aside from some blushing. He wasn't sure what to think about it or what to say in reply.

"I don't mind if you don't respond or return my feelings- I just wanted to tell you," she stood up to leave and Naru didn't know how to react.

He did like her more than most people. The main question was, did he like her in a romantic way? Somewhere in the back of his mind he felt that Gene was calling him an idiot. He hadn't minded holding her hand or hugging her. When he thought about her doing the same to Yasuhara he felt annoyed.

When he thought about how lonely he was going to feel when she went back home he realised that he did like her more than a friend so he lurched into action. He stood up from the table and she turned around to face him.

"Naru?"

"Mai, I feel the same way," he replied.

Her cry of surprise was swallowed by his mouth meeting hers. Mai responded after a few seconds and they had a short moment of bliss before they ran out of air. Naru caught his breath and moved back in for another kiss. Mai was all too happy to oblige.

"Have you changed your mind about wanting to leave?" Naru asked hopefully after they had finished kissing for the moment.

"Of course," she answered. "It's strange to think that we owe this to our ancestors for the arranged marriage that you very coldly turned down."

His mind flicked back to the time he was completely against the arranged marriage and had been annoyed with Lin for going behind his back and contacting Mai. It had actually been the best thing Lin had done for him besides saving his life a few times.

"You could say that we were destined for each other."

 **The End**

* * *

 **A/N: There will be an epilogue posted next week, don't worry. It should answer any remaining questions people have.**


	17. Epilogue

**Destined Ties:**

 **Epilogue:**

Lin received a complete shock the following morning when he went round to see if Mai needed help packing. He walked into the kitchen to find Noll and Mai still in their pyjamas eating toast. The most shocking part was the romantic atmosphere. Noll was smiling brightly at her whilst chiding her for making a mess with the crumbs and even wiped the jam off her face. Was it all a dream?

"I didn't hear you come in, Lin-san," Mai said, suddenly noticing him standing there.

"I came to see if you needed any help moving out."

The mystery was solved by Naru's reply.

"Mai isn't moving out anymore," he informed him. "I hope you don't have a problem with that."

Something must have happened the night before that changed Noll completely. He had known Noll's true feelings early on and suspected that Mai felt the same. What hadn't known was if they would manage to bridge that gap between them. Obviously that had gone fine.

He settled for teasing the boy he had known for years and had never thought would be able to get a girlfriend.

"When do I get to tell your parents that you have a girlfriend?"

The initial look of panic on Noll's face was worth the resultant glare.

* * *

Mai finally got a chance to ask Naru about the photo by his bed when one of their kissing sessions led to his bedroom. Mai lightly placed her hands on his chest and pushed him off so she could speak.

"Why do you have a photo of yourself?" she pointed so he understood what she meant.

He frowned and went over to his desk to open one of the drawers. He returned with another photo frame. This one contained two boys that looked like younger versions of Naru.

"This is a photo of Gene and I. Gene is my identical twin," he explained softly.

It all clicked in Mai's mind. It had never been Naru she had seen in her dreams, it had been Eugene Davis. He had been telling the truth when he said his name wasn't Naru. He had showed her the dreams she needed to understand the curse and protect Naru. She owed him a lot for helping her and for giving her the push to confess to Naru.

Naru let her have a closer look at the photo and left the room abruptly when phone rang in the living room. He had been expecting a call from his parents. This left Mai staring at the photo on her own.

"Thank you, Gene," she whispered.

* * *

Mai woke up to see the familiar sight of her room in Naru's apartment. She had started to move her other possessions over to this apartment and it was beginning to look more like she actually lived in it. She smiled when she remembered the dream she had seen.

She had been a little surprised by the contents of it, but not unhappily so. She was keen to let her new boyfriend know.

Naru looked taken aback by her beaming face as she bounded up to him.

"Did you know I went out to buy croissants as a treat?" he asked.

Mai's eyes fell on the table. As he had said Naru had bought the croissants he had caught her eyeing up outside a French bakery. He was surprisingly demonstrative with his affection sometimes.

"No, it's not that," she said as she sat down at the table. "Everyone will love the idea."

Naru blinked and then he grimaced. "It's really hard to get things past someone that can dream of the future. At least I managed to surprise you with the croissants."

"You did, I like this surprise," she replied and gave him a brief kiss on the lips to give him a surprise as well.

"I like that type of surprise as well," he smiled warmly at her. "Will everything really go to plan later?"

"It will," Mai promised him.

Naru unlocked the office door with the keys he had obtained from the letting agent. He had made arrangements to meet a certain group of people here in half an hour. Mai walked in behind him and immediately opened the curtains which lit up the entire room with natural light.

"That's much better than it first looked in my dream," she explained. "Your personal office is the one on the left and you want me to always deliver tea to you instead of making it yourself like I know you can."

Naru closed his mouth. He should have known she would remember what he had been about to say.

"It's so I can see you regularly," he answered.

It was strangely easy to be romantic towards Mai. It felt like a relief to let all of his feelings out and be truthful to himself and to Mai.

Mai laughed. "I'm remembering how you rejected me not long ago and comparing it with you now."

Naru nudged her playfully. "It is a uncomfortable to remember that. I was quite mean to you at the start."

He had been so annoyed by Lin going against his wishes and contacting Mai. As it turned out it had completely changed his life for the better. A pay rise for Lin was certainly necessary.

"You weren't really mean to me apart from the one moment," she commented. "You were kind to me. You gave me a very generous contract and you were cold at times, but you were never diabolically horrible to me."

His mother would have been horrified on Mai's behalf at his unsociable behaviour. He had given his mother a very abridged version of how the curse had been destroyed and how he met his girlfriend. He was sure that she was planning a party or worse, the wedding. Naturally he was aware that if he really wanted to know, all he would have to do was ask Mai to dream it, however he knew that some things are better left unknown until the time comes.

He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek and she turned at the right moment to make it a kiss on the lips, something that Naru was perfectly happy about. He set about deepening it and soon he had Mai pressed up against the wall.

Unfortunately the amorous moment was broken by a loud knock at the door. Naru and Mai hastily broke apart and rearranged their hair. Naru flattened his fringe again for security and opened the door to find Lin standing outside.

"I had a strange feeling that from now on I should knock on the door when I know you and Taniyama-san are inside," Lin said knowingly. "You need to straighten your collar before the others get here. Think of what the monk will say."

A thought of Bou-an incessantly teasing him about making out with Mai came to mind and he shuddered. It was that or he would threaten him again about making Mai cry. He couldn't think which one was preferable.

"Masako will give me catty looks again," Mai piped up as Naru refolded the collar of his shirt. "I know she's over you, but some small part of her is jealous."

"Do you think it's because I'm good looking?" Naru winked in a way that he knew was obnoxious.

Mai didn't disappoint and poked his arm. "I was just starting to forget why I named you Naru."

"Why don't you call him Noll?" Lin enquired curiously. Her English pronunciation wasn't the worst he had heard and she could pronounce his full name competently.

"I like having a different name," Naru answered. "Being called Naru feels different to being called Noll or Oliver."

"Bou-san called you Naru-bou," Mai pointed out. "Ayako calls you Naru as well."

The other members of the group had picked up on the nickname almost immediately and had been very keen to drop proper honorific and use that nickname.

"It was originally something between us," Naru acknowledged.

They were interrupted again by another knock at the door. This time whoever was outside didn't wait for a reply and Bou-san led everyone inside. They all looked around curiously at the office space. The place did fortunately come furnished so there were two sofas and a desk in the outer office.

"What did you call us here for, Naru-bou?" The monk asked cheerfully.

Naru gestured for them to sit down and offered them tea. Mai volunteered to be the first person to use the kitchenette and headed over there with the carrier bag full of tea making equipment which left him to the mercy of Mai's former colleagues.

"So, what is going on with you and Mai?" Ayako demanded with a glare.

Naru caught Yasuhara's eye and decided he might as well be honest.

"We are romantically involved now," he informed them.

Yasuhara smiled widely at him. "That's good. I think that you two go well together. Thank you for helping Mai where we couldn't."

That was not what he had been expecting to hear. He stared at Yasuhara who looked uncomfortable under his gaze.

"I don't have any feelings for Mai beyond platonic," Yasuhara assured him hastily.

Bou-san clapped him on the back. "Naru-bou, you should count yourself lucky that he hasn't confessed his undying love to you. He used to do it a lot to me back in the day."

"It was mainly for the shock value," Mai's voice came from behind him. "He liked watching people squirm."

"I won't have a chance with Naru if you keep slandering me like that," Yasuhara whined.

Masako shot him a cold glare that could have a sand dune into an iceberg. "You're making everything awkward again, Yasuhara. Naru called us here for a reason and not for you to make him feel uncomfortable."

"Thank you, Hara-san," Naru said gratefully. "I asked you to come here to discuss something. I am setting up a Japanese branch for the Society for Psychical Research. I can't run it with just myself, Mai and Lin. Would you all like to work here as well?"

The silence that emerged from that question was so dead that Mai could hear the tea sloshing in the teacup as Masako placed her cup gently on the coffee table. She was the first one to speak.

"I would be very open to working with this organisation," she answered.

Bou-san managed to close his mouth and speak normally. "I would be honoured to work with Oliver Davis for SPR."

"I agree to it. Someone needs to protect Naru from his number one fanboy," Ayako added.

"I am happy to work with everyone here," John answered.

All eyes turned to Yasuhara who was the only person that hadn't spoken. His glasses glinted and he grinned.

"Of course I will work here, you all need a genius researcher."

After that they all discussed arrangements regarding availability and equipment. The discussion resulted in them all signing contracts to work under Naru. He had made it clear that he was going to be in charge because they needed to be led by someone with more knowledge and experience. This was a relief for Mai as it had been a problem in the past.

When the six of them left the office Naru turned to Mai. He had to make sure of something important.

"Are you sure that you want to work with them on cases again?"

Mai understood his concern and she was sure she had made the right decision. She was confident in her abilities and she no longer feared them. Most importantly Naru would be there to help her out whenever she doubted herself.

"I am," she said with a smile.

She couldn't wait to undertake another case again with her reunited family. This time they would be able to work together forever and she wouldn't run away from anything ever again.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you again to everyone that supported this fanfiction.**

 **I have a two shot I have nearly finished that I will post next week. I am developing another full length NaruxMai fanfic as well that I will post at a later point.**


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